


Sight Unseen

by SakuraDemonAlchemist



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends, 더 게이머 | The Gamer (Webcomic)
Genre: Crossover, Gamer Sawada Tsunayoshi, Genderbending, Protective Siblings, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2019-04-22 22:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14318736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraDemonAlchemist/pseuds/SakuraDemonAlchemist
Summary: Natsume finds herself back in their eight year old body and decides to make the best of it. It wasn't the first time she had time traveled and it really wouldn't be the last. Perhaps this time she could get things right. Though the whole 'Gamer' thing was slightly annoying, it made it a lot easier to gauge her abilities and find new ways to deal with the craziness that came from her life.Now, if only she could figure out a way to deal with the whole mafia thing without going just a little bit crazy a second time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Fem Natsume is Tsuna, with Gamer Elements. I simply couldn't resist and decided to post it here first.

Waking up in your eight year old body with no idea what happened or how you got that way was never fun. Especially when it quickly becomes apparent that she was not only eight, but had somehow time traveled to roughly a year after her grandfather's funeral when she was still getting used to being shipped from family to family to hide the “black sheep”.

She did not appreciate the fact she was treated as a freak growing up all because she inherited Reiko's gift.

Checking the time, Natsume “Takashi” Setsuna rolled over and went back to sleep.

She could start preparing to leave in the morning when she was actually awake.

A few days later...

If there was one thing she hated, it was having to deal with her 'relatives' who all believed she was a boy who saw things that weren't real.

None of them bothered to understand her or even check that she was in fact a boy. She had lost count the number of times she got yelled at for using the 'wrong' bathroom in school when she couldn't hold it in.

To the extended family she was nothing more than an annoying burden they had to hide from the world at large until she was legally old enough to leave and never come back.

Natsume sighed... sometimes she really hated time travel, and with how often she was de-aged this was more of an annoyance than anything.

It was always such a pain having to adjust her fighting style for a smaller, weaker body...

Some time later...

Natsume still felt like hitting herself for missing the fact that she now had a new weird addition to her life. To be fair, she was so used to weird things happening that she had learned to simply roll with it.

Case in point, her life had now become a weird sort of video game. Made it easier to prepare for her eventual vacation though.

A small figure went up to the ATM machine and withdrew as much as they could without being told off by the machine. Normally she might have felt some guilt, stealing money from someone's account like this...but the senile old woman they had stuck her with until some other family was willing to take her in liked to beat children who didn't fit her narrow world view.

Besides, she was due to croak within the week. Might as well make the old bat useful for something, even if her 'children' would bitch about the massive drop in their inheritance after. It wasn't like they'd be able to find her anyway, considering everyone in the family automatically assumed she was a boy and called her by a nickname.

Natsume looked at the bundles of cash she had stored in her Inventory and briefly wondered if this would be enough... then recalled what a complete bitch that old woman had been the second she learned that Natsume had been “lying” about her gender and was always making up stories about monsters that didn't exist.

On second thought, better to hit a few more ATM's until the computers figured out someone was deliberately draining the account. Besides, money had a habit of disappearing quickly with living expenses.

The second the card refused to work three times, Natsume took a pair of scissors to it, before melting it. The last thing she needed was trace evidence leading back to her.

Armed with a rather large amount of cash and no desire to be caught via bank transactions, Natsume immediately left town. It wasn't like the old bat would bother filing a missing person's report.

By the time anyone discovered her missing, she was long gone.

~*~*~*~

“Well, at least this 'gamer' thing makes it easier to gauge my abilities,” said Natsume to herself.

Not to mention made it far easier to avoid the hidden paths that lead to the Ayakashi realms... or use them to avoid humans.

Seriously, adults looked down on kids way too much. 

Natsume was heartily glad she possessed a deep well of good old fashioned common sense. It made things so much easier, especially when combined with her life experience.

Case in point, she spent the 'school hours' practicing her limited martial art skills and increasing her stamina and control. Once the schools let out, she would hit the library for a few hours until it started to get dark, by which time she would go and either catch dinner (her skills were limited in that, especially since over-hunting would lead to interference with adults) or more often buying something that would last the night and almost into the morning.

One thing she was very glad was that in the underworld, age was relative. She was already establishing herself as a wandering pickpocket and thief. While her reputation was low, that was something she could live with.

She'd only bother increasing that when she needed weapons or hard to get ingredients. At least they were good for fencing the random things that the ayakashi kept leaving her in 'tribute'. Honestly, she knew Reiko was a bit of a bully in her youth, but this was plain ridiculous.

Sensing someone approaching, Natsume promptly took to the trees. People so very rarely looked up for a small child, and with how closely the trees were clumped together it made jumping between branches relatively simple.

“Are you certain you saw the child in the area?” asked an adult voice. Natsume scowled.

“Positive. The lad has not attended school once, I've checked.”

Natsume inwardly cursed, before a quest window appeared.

Evade capture!

Due to your actions in taking money that wasn't yours, a “Bounty” has been placed on your head by your relatives. Beware of well meaning adults!

Quest Reward: 1500 EXP, 5000 in Yen, +100 to Evasion/Disguise skills

Quest Failure: 100 EXP, Vigilant Relatives and Loss of Freedom until majority

Of course they were after the money she took. Greedy bastards. Then again she had pilfered quite a bit of it before the banks caught on two days later, and with how small she was it was doubtful the cameras even caught anything. They were set to adult height, after all.

Spotting some lesser ayakashi nearby, a plan formed.

Channeling just a bit of spiritual energy into some of the pine cones, she took aim...and threw.

Lesser ayakashi weren't known for their deductive reasoning skills, she knew. And while it might be petty, her freedom was more important than allowing those people to find her again.

They took one look at the intrusive humans and began harassing them without a second thought. After all, it wasn't like they could tell the difference between a human who could See them and who simply had the bad luck of being in the area.

Natsume had learned that lesson long ago. She had perfected her poker face and a rather useful charm that would repel everything lower than a mid-ranked youkai. It looked like such a simple childish charm that no adult would think twice about it being tied to her side.

Not unless they had the Sight too, in which case she wasn't afraid to make their lives very difficult indeed. Most humans were completely unreasonable when it came to ayakashi. She had lost count the number she had freed from some upstart exorcist who thought that a harmless demon needed to be sealed simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Seeing the humans run from the hidden enemies, Natsume didn't dare let down her guard.

She was still in the danger zone, and the quest hadn't ended. That meant there were more people looking for her.

Fortunately the “Gamer” ability gave her a general warning of potential danger areas by marking them with odd cones colored in red. While she hadn't played many games, she could tell that they were adults or other authority figures by the way an odd exclamation point showed up the two times she skimmed the edge of the “cone”. It didn't hurt that the “adult” she was avoiding became slightly more vigilant for as long as she was within range of them the two times it happened.

Using her skills of evading ayakashi and bullies alike, Natsume slowly but methodically made her way towards the mountain. While her camping skills weren't the best, it was preferable to the cities and towns where humans could easily find her.

An unspoken rule of childhood that Natsume took full advantage of was that “Thou shall not rat out another kid to annoying adults”. Especially when Natsume played it off as the adults being annoying buggers and that she was playing a prank on her relatives who were mad because she was smarter than they were. The implied mischief and the thought of getting one over adults was more than enough to win the support of the other kids.

Sure, it was manipulative as hell but this was her freedom at stake.

Finally the Quest alert popped up again once she was a few towns away. She had managed to avoid capture, for now.

That had been entirely too close and she did not want to deal with “well meaning adults” again. Nosy bastards.

Well, she did know of one creature who could be...bribed...to help her avoid those idiots. Besides, she missed that mooch and she did have the Book on her already.

***~~***

Breaking the seal was easy. Bribing Madara was a complete pain in the ass, but fortunately he didn't automatically mistake her for Reiko. Then again he had always been a bit smarter than most, and correctly guessed that she was Reiko's descendant.

Natsume had an odd smile on her face and she calmly held out the Book. She had already removed some of the Names inside, mostly to start building up a reputation in the Youkai realms.

Madara's full attention was on the innocent seeming book of scribbles. At least, to those without Sight anyway.

“You're playing a dangerous game, having that out so casually human,” said Madara in his maneki neko form.

“My name is Natsume Setsuna. And I would like to make a deal with you, you fake cat.”

Madara sat down on his haunches and gave her a Look.

“I'm listening.”

“I need a bodyguard...my body is still too small and weak to properly defend myself from ayakashi and adults who have no idea what they're really dealing with. I'd be willing to hand over the remainder of the Book of Friends in exchange for protection and companionship. If I die before I return the names, then it's all yours.”

Madara's eyes glinted.

“What makes you think I won't simply eat you and take the Book right now?”

Natsume smirked at him.

“Because then you'd be bored out of your mind. Sure, you'd have control of all those in the Book and be able to lord over them... but then you would miss out on all the chaos and trouble I stir up. Besides, this way you'd be able to gain underlings without having to fight any higher level youkai over the Book itself,” she countered.

Madara smirked as well. He liked this young human. She was almost as cunning and mischievous as Reiko had been in her youth.

With a loud poof, Madara stood in his true form and looked the girl in the eye. She didn't even look remotely afraid... in fact she reached out and stroked his nose affectionately.

“We have an agreement human. I'll keep you alive, in exchange for the Book when you die,” said Madara.

Natsume hugged the demon's head...she was so small she could barely wrap her arms around him properly.

You have gained a permanent party member!

“...Brat, what in blazes is that?” demanded Madara.

“Something both useful and highly annoying that showed up a year ago,” deadpanned Natsume. “It's somewhat hard to explain since it's based off a human method of entertainment. I did say I attracted the weirdest sorts of trouble.”

Madara snorted, before turning back into his fake cat form.

“Bah. You owe me food brat,” demanded the cat.

“Whatever you say, Nyanko-sensei. I know a good place that serves manju near here.”

“...What did you just call me?” said Nyanko incredulous.

“I'm a kid and you look like a cat. Get used to it,” she deadpanned. “At least I'm calling you 'sensei' instead of 'chan'.”

Nyanko grumbled, but accepted the new nickname. He didn't seem to mind it much when he realized exactly why Natsume had broken the seal on him. The idea of getting one over on multiple humans who should have kept their nose out of the little one's business was simply too entertaining to ignore. Especially since Natsume turned a blind eye to minor pranks so long as it never came back to herself.

Within a month there were new rumors of “Reiko's Descendant” that had gone practically viral. Benio in particular was quick to track Natsume down and was positively delighted to have a “mini Reiko” to dote on.

Natsume could put up with a lot of things from her friends, and she easily considered the older female ayakashi among that number.

Still, she had plenty of time before things really got interesting.

*******

Natsume “Takashi” Setsuna

Level: 14  
Age: 9  
Gender: Female  
HP: 300/300  
SP: 750/750  
FP: 100/100*  
Strength: 25  
Dexterity: 23  
Speed: 15  
Intelligence: 50  
Wisdom: 50  
Constitution: 25  
Charisma: ?

A loner out of necessity, Natsume was “orphaned” during her unlucky past. Her parents are still very much alive, but she was sent to live with her grandfather who died shortly before she was eight. When her mother failed to claim her, Natsume was promptly shuffled between families in order to hide the “black sheep” of the family. Thanks to the fact she was a bit of a tomboy, the family is under the assumption that Natsume is in fact a boy by the name of Takashi. No one has seen fit to confirm this fact, leading to several unpleasant confrontations by the teachers in every school she has gone to.

Due to certain factors, Natsume has been given a second chance at childhood and is armed with far more knowledge of the factions in the background that could make her life far more complicated than is willing to deal with.

Natsume currently has a seal on her full powers due to a relative of her father's family, which had the unusual side effect of awakening the full brunt of her great grandmother Reiko's gift of Sight. Due to this seal she is unable to access certain abilities, but has trained extensively to use her spiritual powers.

She is currently capable of minor seals, mid-level warding to deter youkai, and several attacks that are usually combined with her limited skills in hand to hand. At this point she is a semi-well known pickpocket and is slowly acquiring a minor reputation in the underworld as a thief.

Flame Seal: Forcibly restricts Dying Will Flames, is particularly brutal when used on Active Flame types. Can cause permanent damage to Skies when applied. -75 percent growth to Dying Will Flames (FP) and abilities per level.

Sight: Ayakashi and other beings have long since existed side by side with humans, often with disastrous results for the humans. With the dwindling ability to perceive the other realms, those “lucky” enough to be able to See youkai are often tormented and harassed by all sides. For those with a particularly strong Gift, they are lucky just to reach adulthood as some Ayakashi do not take kindly to humans being able to see them. This often leads to animosity towards youkai from the human in question, and often leads them to becoming exorcists. +150 percent boost to Spiritual Power (SP) growth per level.

Not This Again: With repeated exposure to time travel and being turned into a child in general, it's hard to be surprised by minor inconveniences anymore. +25 percent boost to INT and WIS per Quest and level

Lesser Sky Aura: Not even a Seal can fully repress the natural charisma granted to Skies. +/- ? boost to Charisma ranking

Lesser Thief: Pick-pocketing is the most basic of basic skills for thieves. Every successful confirmed theft grants +10 to Underworld Rep, -25 to Rep if caught.

Reiko's Descendant: Natsume Reiko is one of the more...well known...figures in Japan among Ayakashi. Her efforts in creating the infamous “Book of Friends” have made waves among the youkai realms. +50 Rep among Ayakashi/Youkai for every successful show of strength +75 percent boost to SP growth per level

Book of Friends: a Forbidden creation made by Natsume Reiko, it contains the true names written down by the youkai she defeated purely out of boredom. The youkai who's names are contained within cannot refuse a direct order by those of Reiko's bloodline so long as the Name remains bound to the paper. +150 Rep among Youkai

Intermediate Hand to Hand: Not quite skilled enough to be considered a Black Belt, Natsume has more than a passing familiarity in several different styles of martial arts due to necessity, enough to make her a challenging opponent for those entirely untrained. +50 percent boost to learning “hand to hand combat”, +25 Rep with “Martial Artists”

Intermediate Spiritualist/Exorcist skills: Repeated exposure to youkai and exorcists in general have resulted in a rather eclectic collection of skills to be used in situations involving youkai. Includes basic seal mastery, basic warding mastery, and basic contract creation mastery.


	2. Chapter 2

Natori Shuuichi was many things, but oblivious was not one of them. The woman with the almost eleven year old girl was most certainly not the child's “older sister” as she claimed. If anything, it meant the “woman” was very dangerous indeed because she was able to assume human form so easily and still be seen by anyone.

The child took one look at him and paled. She tugged on the hand of the youkai she was with, and the two promptly left the area.

Considering he couldn't very well leave a child with a youkai and not have it haunt him, he followed them without a second thought.

The child lead the fake woman to a relatively discreet area. Natori frowned.

At first he assumed the child was being lead on by the youkai, but now he wasn't entirely sure. It was almost as if the youkai was humoring the child and allowing itself to be lead by the girl.

“Nyanko-sensei, it's safe to switch back,” said the girl firmly.

“Bah. You still owe me takoyaki brat!” said the 'woman', before turning into a particularly pudgy looking fake cat. Said feline easily allowed the girl to pick it up in her arms, which she did with ease.

Natori blinked. What on earth?

The girl turned to face him, and there was something in her eyes that belied her apparent age. No child should ever have that sort of look in their eyes.

It was a tired resignation combined with experience no child should have to go through and a small amount of distrust. Considering she was clearly comfortable with the youkai in her arms and leveling the distrust his way, he had the feeling she more than a few bad experiences with humans.

“If you're trying to convince me that all ayakashi are evil, then I should inform you that I've suffered more at the hands of humans than I have from a simple youkai,” she said dryly. “You wouldn't believe the number of half-assed seals I've had to remove because some idiot half-trained exorcist just had to play with a new spell and decided that some poor youkai was the perfect test subject for it.”

“That's dangerous. You could very well be unleashing one that eats humans, especially children,” he said without thinking.

“Yes, but I ask around to find out who was sealed first before I remove it. It's easier to get them to do minor favors and leave humans alone if you have a reputation for being nice to others,” she informed him.

He stared at her. Most children avoided youkai, especially those with the Sight...which she most definitely had if her comment was even remotely true.

“Where are your parents?” he asked finally.

She openly glared at him. He had to hold back a shiver of apprehension...something told him that getting on her bad side was not something that would end well. For him, that is.

“If it's all the same to you,” she said curtly, her voice dangerous and implying a great deal of violence was imminent if he didn't change the subject, “I would rather not return to people who would treat me as a freak and a burden simply because of something I can't control.”

He openly winced at that. The sheer implications of that statement said far too much of her home life and why she was wandering around with a powerful youkai as her “adult supervision”. Clearly she had been alone for a very long time and had begun to distrust humans in general.

And he couldn't in good conscience leave the girl to wander around breaking seals with that sort of gift. Never mind what sort of youkai she could accidentally unleash, there were far too many human predators who would be all too happy to kidnap her. 

(The fact he mentally added a certain exorcist he knew did not help his peace of mind. Matoaba wouldn't hesitate to snatch this child up if he knew she had a strong enough gift to break seals, though her distrust in humans would only make things end horribly for all involved.)

Natori thought about trying to use a fake smile, but he had the sneaking suspicion she'd see through it and avoid him even more. Instead he tried a different tactic.

He used blunt logic that was very hard to argue against.

“You do realize that the second people find out you're not in school they're going to start asking questions. Your...friend...is good enough to pass initial inspection but you'd have to keep moving constantly to avoid the authorities. Never mind the headaches of weather changes due to the seasons and what could happen if you suddenly became sick. A youkai would have great difficulty finding medicine that is acceptable for humans.”

“Benio has a firm grasp of what a human can tolerate, and I apparently have something of a natural affinity to their medicine,” said the girl, holding the 'cat' closer to her.

And by natural affinity she meant that the herbs and treatments worked as they should without any side effects. Benio was rather relieved to discover that she could handle youkai medicine that well, since some humans had some very bad reactions to it. On the other hand it meant she was also susceptible to certain herbs and concoctions, since her body could absorb them properly.

Natori pressed on.

“And what happens if you unleash something that's too strong for you to handle without your cat with you?” he countered. “Or if you anger the wrong exorcist?”

She openly rolled her eyes at the second part.

“For your information I can make seals strong enough that even the current generation of the Matoaba clan would have great difficulty breaking them, if at all. If anything the ability and power levels of modern exorcists has gone down considerably from what they were centuries ago.”

He'd easily concede that. His own family had more or less lost their ability to even See youkai, and he was the only one with the gift at all. Then his mind latched onto what she just said and he stared.

“Wait, what?”

“I said I can make seals that even the Matoaba would have trouble breaking, if at all,” she repeated. “It's rather hilarious to listen to their frustration when I deliberately seal off a youkai they were after or help it escape from their clutches because the stronger ones like me more.” 

The cat in her arms snickered evilly at that.

That had been hilarious and more than made up for any petty annoyances he got from helping her. Watching those exorcists fail to get whatever demon they were after because of a child was far too amusing!

It was official, he had to make sure this little one was off the streets before Matoaba figured out who was behind his string of bad luck and did something about it.

“What's your name, little one?”

“Natsume Setsuna, though everyone used to call me Takashi.”

“Why?” Natori asked. He had to know who on earth would inflict such a masculine name on a girl.

“Grandpa said I was such a tomboy when I went to live with him that I should have a name to reflect it. And no one bothered to check if I was really a boy or not when I was shuffled from house to house. Stupid teachers used to tell me off for using the wrong restrooms all the time,” Natsume replied in annoyance.

He bent down so he was closer to eye level with the girl.

“My name is Natori Shuuichi.”

“This is Nyanko-sensei. He's my bodyguard,” said Natsume, holding up the fake cat.

“Oh? How did you get such a funny looking bodyguard?” asked Natori, smiling gently.

“He knew my great grandmother, and I made a deal with him. He gets to keep something of hers in exchange for being my permanent bodyguard.”

“And what was it that he wanted in return?” asked Natori, trying to keep his expression neutral.

“A book. It has a bunch of weird scribbles in it, but apparently it's something she had when she was younger,” said Natsume with a straight face.

He still considers it a minor victory that she was at least willing to trust him for the moment.

*~*~*~*

Natsume had to admit, running into Natori-san this early was not in her plans at all. Neither was the fact that he took one look at her age and decided he wasn't going to let her run around unsupervised anymore.

She almost hadn't recognized him at first. His hair was a bit shorter than she was used to and his face was a bit younger. He couldn't be out of his teens quite yet. There was also the fact she could only see one of his shiki with him, meaning he hadn't found the other one.

His auburn brown hair was still as messy as every, and he hadn't fully grown into the looks that made him such a popular actor.

The only reason she had known it was him was because of the lizard that moved freely under his skin.

Natsume clutched Nyanko-sensei to her a bit tighter. While Natori had been one of her strongest allies before, he had no idea who she was outside of a child who had the same gift he did with a distrust of humans. She couldn't accurately predict how he would behave, since adults were naturally more protective of children.

Before he had humored her because she was old enough to understand what was going on and because he didn't want to lose a potential friend.

Considering she was barely twelve, she would have to prove she was far more mature than she looked if she wanted the same respect.

And that wasn't taking into account the odd pop up that had appeared without warning.

Apprenticeship: Natori Shuuichi-exorcist

Even in modern times the tradition of passing down knowledge of special talent and job skills is an important task. Apprenticeships are still thriving today!

Do you wish to accept Natori Shuuichi as your mentor?

Buffs: +75 boost to all exorcist skills 

+50 Rep among Exorcist class

+45 percent boost to 'Acting' skills

Unlock Shikigami skill tree

Debuffs: -25 Rep with youkai for first three years

Loss of freedom from “school work” and “adult supervision”

She wasn't too surprised by the debuffs. But the real question was what were her options available. She could tell that he wasn't about to let her wander around like she had been for four years and if she stayed she'd have to attend the headache that was public school again.

Odds were he'd make her wear the girl's uniform too. Ugh. She still hadn't gotten used to skirts, and that was only because Benio insisted on dressing her up to match her gender, just to try and replicate Reiko!

Natori was doing pretty good, for a guy who had limited to no experience with small children. It probably helped she acted more mature for her age and was decidedly a tomboy despite the outfit she had been tricked into wearing today.

It wasn't her fault she had been raised a boy because of those idiots.

“Ah. I wasn't expecting to find someone like you today. Sorry about the mess,” said Natori in a sheepish manner.

Natsume tried not to smile. It was almost like dealing with Dino-nii, except Natori wasn't nearly as clumsy as the Italian and he didn't need people around him to actually be effective. But their personality (and to some extent their looks) were so similar...

“Bachelors are rarely tidy...especially when they're still teenagers.”

Natori blinked, a bit surprised she had made a scarily accurate guess of his age.

“You're a lot more perceptive than people would think, aren't you?”

“Some would say too perceptive,” she replied, hugging Nyanko to her chest.

She could still remember the way her 'family' had reacted to the odd guests that kept showing up and getting her into trouble. Right before they had enough and sent her away to a new family only for the process to start all over again.

Natori made very, very sure she saw what he was planning to do before he gently ruffled her hair. It felt nice...she had forgotten what having positive affection from others felt like, outside of Benio's hugs.

Dinner was slightly awkward, but at least she was able to sleep in the guest bedroom.

The next morning was almost as bad, but there was a subtle tension that had lessened, just a little bit.

“So, Exorcist, what are you planning to do to my Natsume?” demanded Nyanko.

“How old are you?” he asked.

“A little over twelve,” she replied.

He inwardly winced, and she could guess why. Puberty was never any fun, either for the ones suffering it or for the adults who had to explain what it was.

“In that case you'll still be required to attend compulsory schooling. There's no telling how far behind you've gotten because you moved around a lot.”

“I tend to visit the library once school hours are over, since that way the adults aren't likely to think I'm simply skipping,” she told him.

“And what do you do during school hours?” he asked, honestly curious.

“Practice what Benio and Hinoe have to teach until I can get it right.”

Youkai arts were difficult, but usable if you had the affinity for it. And she definitely did, much to their delight. The fact she actually wanted to learn and wasn't as squeamish as most girls her age was a major bonus.

Natori looked like he had a headache.

Unseen, he didn't notice her click the 'Y' button on the “Apprenticeship” pop up from yesterday and again this morning. Nyanko had found the entire thing almost as annoying as she did. They had also discussed this particular option before bed, so they were in agreement. After all, he would have to deal with being close to an exorcist for an extended period.

So it was entirely unsurprising when Natori offered to train her properly in the exorcist arts, or at least what he knew of them. He was self-taught.

For now it would be on a trial basis to see if they could get along. Natsume had no illusions about that...she was fairly laid back to an extent and she had gotten along rather well with his older self previously. She simply had to adjust for the fact he was a bit younger than she remembered and not an actor yet.

At least she wouldn't be bored.

~*~*~*~*~*

Natsume “Takashi” Setsuna

Level: 30  
Age: 12.3  
Gender: Female  
Class: Apprentice Exorcist/?  
HP: 4500/4500  
SP: 2400/2400  
FP: 2100/2100  
Strength: 74  
Dexterity: 50  
Speed: 30  
Intelligence: 76  
Wisdom: 75  
Constitution: 40  
Charisma: 25

Due to multiple near death experiences, Natsume has removed the seal on her powers. However this comes at the cost of potentially losing her anonymity in the underworld. As such Natsume relies on a very unique and dangerous artifact to hide what she is until she is ready to deal with those that would target her.

Apprentice Exorcist: Grants a boost in learning all the things an exorcist or spiritualist would need to know in dealing with troublesome youkai. Unlocks “Shikigami Skill Tree” at level ten. May cause fluctuations in REP towards Youkai and other spirits.

?: A mysterious artifact that is very well known in the underworld. It comes in a set of seven.

Youkai Arts: Some people have the proper affinity to use spells, incantations and potions made by youkai. Allows one to read and if trained correctly, to write in the Youkai language which appears to be scribbles to those without Sight. May cause user to become susceptible to certain potions and/or spells cast by youkai

Sky Charisma: Throughout history there have always been those that stand out from the rest. People who have a natural ability to gain followers and make big changes in society. Grants +5 boost to Charisma Ranking for every level.

Hyper Intuition: You can see into the future! Not. Certainly seems like it to everyone else. Grants fifty percent boost to Dexterity, Wisdom and Intelligence when active and Boost to “Martial Arts” skill set during combat

Permanent Party Member: Madara/Nyanko-sensei


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday to me, whoot!

Natori wondered if this was what it felt like to be a single parent. Not even one month in and already he was being called to deal with his “sister”.

It wasn't ayakashi...he had found the simple ward she made with a little blood and ink highly effective in deterring anything up to a mid-level youkai... but rather several complaints from the parents of her classmates.

“Natori-san? Follow me please,” said the teacher.

“Can I ask what she did to warrant a meeting?” he asked.

“I'm afraid you'll have to ask her that yourself. Why she felt the need to record the entire event before she sent those girls crying I'll never understand,” said the teacher primly.

“From what I was told before she came to live with me, she has past experiences of the teachers taking the side of whoever was harassing her and never bothering to confirm facts,” he said diplomatically. “Something about her relatives mistaking her for a boy and not bothering to check.”

“Well that certainly explains a few things, though it doesn't excuse the fact she made the other girls cry.”

“There's nothing wrong with her grade level is there?” asked Natori. Considering she had been roaming around Japan for the better part of three years he wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

“Actually it's quite the opposite. If anything she's well above what the other students are working on at the moment and if I thought she could handle it I'd suggest she move up a grade level or two. If anything the only issue I've seen is her inability to socialize with the other children,” said the teacher.

“How bad are we talking about?”

“She makes no effort to make friends or join any clubs. If anything she's more inclined to avoid others and eats alone during lunch.”

Natori winced at that.

“From what I was told she was moved between families quite a bit before I was old enough to take her in, and they never made any effort to include her.”

“I see,” said the teacher.

Listening to the drivel of the simpering female teacher was a headache and a half, but informative.

“Really, Set-chan?” he asked exasperated. 

“I gave them four warnings to leave me alone, and they refused to listen,” said Natsume annoyed. “And how is it my fault that it happened to start on the same day they decided to harass me again?”

Natori ran that through his head and openly winced. 

It took the teacher a few seconds to register what she was implying before a look of sympathy came across her face. Suddenly the fact she made four girls cry with their egos in shreds was a minor factor.

“We'll go shopping when this is over,” he promised, already cringing at the idea.

“I did yesterday. I recognized the warning signs from the books I read on the subject,” said Natsume. “It was pretty obvious what it was when the medicine I normally take for my headaches was able to alleviate some of the cramping.”

Natori really didn't want to have this discussion. He got a sympathetic look from the teacher at least.

They left the meeting with a mortified Natori and a bored Natsume.

“Were you telling the truth about that, or did you just say that to get them to drop the issue?” he asked.

“Half and half. I already went through it a week and a half ago, but I barely stocked up enough supplies. I figured it would get them to shut up about the fact I made their ego return to a more sensible level if I used it as an excuse though,” admitted Natsume.

Natori had a rather amusing look on his face, Natsume decided. She decided to pity him.

“I know what a period is and what it means,” she deadpanned.

“I still have to give you the basic talk,” said Natori. He was not looking forward to that at all.

Natsume leveled a Look at him.

“Do you want me to explain what puberty is and what sort of changes I'll likely experience, or do you really want to go through that?”

“I want to be sure you have all the basics covered at least,” he said tiredly.

“I'm sure Nyanko-sensei would be happy to share his stash he thinks I don't know about if you asked correctly...or brought decent snacks,” she commiserated.

Natori could only hope so. He would rather have this particular talk with a few drinks in him rather than deal with it sober. And he volunteered to raise a girl about to hit puberty in the first place.

What the hell had he been thinking?

The next morning...

Nyanko found the whole situation highly amusing for more than one reason. Namely the fact the exorcist had to get very, very drunk after he explained the bare basics of human mating and the fact Natsume had come of age.

Which was nonsense. In the youkai world Natsume had been a full adult by the time she was thirteen, and Benio had a passing knowledge of the subject. 

He still found it amusing that it had been Natsume who clarified a few facts the female youkai had been unsure about and even went into detail about the ending of the human female's mating cycles that had always confused Benio. He doubted Reiko would have gone into any detail about it if asked...she had died rather young after all.

Natori, once he got over the hangover, decided to broach one of the issues the teacher had brought up. Namely the fact that despite being in school for three weeks Natsume had yet to make a single friend.

She refused to join any clubs, not that he could fully blame her considering what he learned about her past experience with adults.

Finding out she had acquired something of a reputation for being a liar and trouble maker (the stories he heard made him inclined to believe that had more to do with problems involving youkai), Natori could easily believe that Natsume had given up entirely on socializing with her peers as a way to protect herself from inevitable heartbreak when she had to leave. There was also an unconfirmed rumor that she had been behind the theft of a very large sum of money from an old woman that, if one were to look underneath the ramblings of the adults, had not been very kind to children. Especially those that didn't fit her narrow view of how things were supposed to be.

Something that he knew perfectly well included Natsume's Sight, if the 'nicer' relatives had been short with her about it.

He thought it better not to ask. He wanted plausible deniability and he wasn't entirely certain Natsume would tell him if she did it or not anyway.

Since he was aware Natsume liked martial arts to an extent, he went looking into what dojos were in the immediate area accepting new applicants. He selected three and hoped this wouldn't end badly considering how she reacted to the girls at school.

In her defense, he had listened to recording first before talking to her about it and she had delivered a calculated retaliation that wasn't too vicious to their comments.

Two days later...

“Really?” she said skeptically. “This will only end in tears you know.”

“Now Natsume, there's no reason you can't at least try,” said Natori patiently.

“When I said 'it will end in tears', I meant for whoever is running this place. Most dojos are run by journeymen more interested in making money and exploiting the tournament system while handing out fancy belts than actually training in their style.”

When they entered the first after-school dojo for basic karate lessons, Natsume's eyes immediately honed in on the three boys in the back. They were black belts, she could tell, and all of them were bullies. She detested idiots like them.

“I take it back, this could be fun for everyone,” she said darkly.

Natori quickly decided he wasn't about to risk her ruining the egos of the other dojos he had looked up when she 'innocently' challenged four black belts who had all the hallmarks of people who thought that having a belt suddenly made them superior to normal people...and promptly laid them all flat on their ass in less than five minutes using perfectly legal moves with no wasted movement.

The owner of the place took one look at the skills she was using, before flatly informing him...

“I'm afraid her skill level is a bit too advanced for us...never mind the fact that her methods are a bit too brutal for what normal dojos practice. You'd have better luck finding a temple that still takes students.”

Natori sighed with defeat. There went that plan.

~*~*~*~*

“What's an exorcist summit?” asked Natsume. 

“Pretty much a meet and greet among exorcists. It's a good place to get information, trade lower level techniques and potential items that may prove useful,” said Natori. “Don't make a scene unless they provoke you first.”

“Should I prepare the masks?” asked Natsume.

“Why would you need a mask when you're going as my apprentice?”

“Force of habit when dealing with the ayakashi realm blind, that and I might have annoyed several exorcists by breaking the newer seals,” said Natsume.

“Alright, but no obscene designs,” he conceded. It wasn't that unheard of to wear a mask at these events, and considering her age they might think she was simply practicing for later.

Natsume pulled out two pieces of spiritually charged paper from her inventory. Benio and Hinoe had taught her the basics of mask creation, though for best results it was better to use willingly donated youkai blood. Using hers simply drew the more idiotic lesser demons out of the woodwork.

Made for good sparring practice though.

“So how does one make a mask?” asked Natori.

“Youkai blood and spirit paper. Though it works best with willingly given blood, because forcibly taking it adds a certain aura and can sometimes tip off the demons you're trying to hide from. The design on the mask itself can be almost anything, but it's easier to stick with something simple because you don't want to use up all the blood. The youki charged in the blood almost completely covers the human scent and masks the type of spiritual energy being emitted,” said Natsume. “However there are a few problems with this.”

“Like what?”

“The shelf life is ridiculously short and can only last as long as the charge you put into the blood itself. And you can't reuse them once you're done, because it won't hold a second charge once the blood is dried. However they're common enough that most youkai won't bother to care so long as the scent is right, so you can use different designs each time. There are certain items that can replicate the mask's effects, but they require special favors to get them.”

Natsume made it look like she was pulling something out of a box under the bed, when in reality she was pulling it out of her inventory.

It was a simple kimono and mask, though the mask itself looked like something you'd wear at a festival.

“I got this by releasing a kami that was sealed by an idiot who thought it was a simple youkai causing problems. As long as I'm wearing this, youkai can't sense what I am.”

It was the same costume she wore pretending to be that same kami, except the kimono was spelled to fit her size perfectly every time it came out of the inventory. She normally just used the mask though, even though the effect was halved.

“It's easier to use the temporary masks though,” said Natsume.

As the day to the summit grew closer, Natsume trained harder. She could only hope that she found something useful, because she had hit a relative dead-end in what she could do solo. While her more ardent fans didn't mind the fact she was living with an exorcist, that decrease in REP with the unaffiliated youkai was really starting to bite her in the ass now. It was harder to get new techniques and most of the quests that came up were all daily life or exorcist oriented.

At least Natori left interesting books on the shelf, since he realized she wasn't going to touch the more dangerous ones without permission first. And as long as she knew what was inside the container and why, she left the youkai he was sealing in them alone.

She understood the concept of “look, don't touch”, unlike some apprentices. So long as the youkai sealed deserved it, she would leave the seal alone.

Finally the day arrived, and the first thing she did was wait until they were almost there to make the masks using some of Nyanko's donated blood. Considering he was going as her 'shiki' to better swipe some of the booze (he was so abusing her inventory to get the good stuff for later), a little blood was a small price to pay.

Natori had to snort when he realized her mask was an copy of Nyanko's face.

“It's so everyone knows he's with me,” she explained cheekily.

“Right,” he said, amused.

As they followed the signposts...which were really just youkai stationed to direct real exorcists to the meeting area with special signs, many of whom were surprised when she gave them all food or drinks as thanks for giving the actual directions...it didn't take long before they found an odd tree with a kimono tied to the top branch.

“See that kimono? Can you tell me what color it is?” asked Natori smiling.

Natsume blinked, before shading her eyes.

“Whoever lost that is going to be in a lot of trouble. I don't think I've seen such an elaborate design on one before,” said Natsume after a moment.

Natori stared at her.

“What?”

“I knew you were strong, but not that strong,” he said in amazement. “Most can only see a bit of color, though the brighter it is the stronger the sight. Only the really powerful exorcists can see patterns on it.”

No wonder Natsume had such trouble before he found her. Youkai would have been drawn to her like flies to honey, though how she managed to gain the favor of several powerful ones when most exorcists with that amount of gift grew to hate them was a bit baffling.

Then again considering how alone she had been growing up until she had enough, perhaps it wasn't that surprising. When making friends with humans failed, it was only inevitable she would befriend the few friendly youkai she met instead. They at least understood her and didn't judge.

Finally they reached the building. She could already tell it was going to be a headache and a half, if the buzz of the people inside was any indication.


	4. Chapter 4

Natsume, with permission from Natori once he was sure she wouldn't leave the room without telling him first, made a beeline straight to the side table where some of the exorcists were selling or trading items they couldn't use themselves or had made. For the most part it was pure junk, though she got some good books for some of the items she got from her youkai friends or from those she had helped.

"A tengu feather, completely intact! Where did you find such a prize!" gushed one man.

"I broke the seal he was under, and since he didn't have anything else to thank me with he gave me a few of his feathers before returning to his training in spiritual enlightenment," said Natsume honestly. "He was quite relieved that I happened upon him before he lost enough progress that he would have to start all over."

She fully planned to give one to Xanxus when she finally saw him again. He'd probably get a kick out of it once he knew what it was.

She walked away from the odd little market several ryo lighter, and without a few crafting items she had no interest in playing with. Coincidentally she gained quite a bit of REP with the "Exorcist Market", enough that when she went back a bit later when they changed out the people manning it she found even more useful items. Apparently the higher your Reputation with them (and your own level), the better the quality of items were available.

She had already stocked up on spiritually charge paper, as well as a book on common paper shikigami creation she planned to play with later. She could use a new hobby, and she always found origami fun enough.

Besides, this meant she could upgrade her throwing skills with paper shuriken. How could she say no to that?

"YOU! You're that brat who humiliated me in front of my teacher!"

Natsume's head turned to see an irate apprentice Exorcist well below her own skill level, never mind ability.

"Do I know you?"

The apprentice fumed, clearly pissed about something.

"You're the little brat who broke my seal before I had a chance to show my teacher my progress!"

Her eyes narrowed.

"You mean to tell me you're the idiot who sealed that poor kappa behind a rock where there wasn't any water with such a half-assed seal? It barely took any effort to remove it and the kappa was almost dehydrated by the time I freed him!" she scolded. "What kind of fool goes around using seals on innocent ayakashi who are just passing by just to test their own ability?"

Uncaring of the growing crowd around her, or the fact that several other exorcists had apparently figured out who had been behind the sudden spate of seals being broken left, right and center across Japan, Natsume glared at him.

Nyanko jumped onto her shoulder and sneered at the little apprentice exorcist.

"So he's the fool who placed that rather pathetic seal on the kappa? Any competent ayakashi could have broken it if they cared to."

The apprentice flushed, before attempting to charge at Natsume and her cat.

Natsume didn't think twice. His level was pathetic and she could tell from using the Observe ability that he was a child playing at being an exorcist in the first place. If she didn't teach him some humility now he'd only get himself killed biting off more than he could chew later.

Sliding into her preferred stance, she easily slipped past his charge, before channeling some of her spiritual power and slamming him into the ground with an aikido throw.

All the older exorcists immediately felt her seal his power back.

"You are a bigger child than I am. Your skill level is appalling and your attack was so sloppy a first year child learning tournament-style karate could see it coming from a mile off. Just because you have a bit of power and a few fancy tricks does not make you an exorcist...it makes you straight out cannon fodder for anyone with half a brain and actual skill," she lectured him, pinning him to the ground with ease. "Either take your training seriously or go back to your normal life."

Several of the older, more experienced exorcists were nodding with approval. She had delivered a measured response to the fool's attack that was perfectly executed. She also behaved like a proper exorcist, not a child.

"That's your apprentice, Natori-kun? You've certainly lucked out finding her," said Satoshi.

"Natsume is one of a kind. She saw actual patterns in the kimono... however her social skills among humans is lacking considerably."

"How so?"

"She has zero human friends and is more likely to empathize with a youkai than a human. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, considering she has made allies with several powerful ones who help when asked politely and gained a few useful items and abilities, it makes socializing with humans rather difficult," said Natori tiredly.

"Sounds like you have your work cut out for you."

"She is a genius, but she has a better sense of modesty than most who have the same amount of talent. And her work ethic is ridiculously high... when I teach her something she will practice at it until she's at a higher level than I am," he replied. "Though at least she knows better than to touch the higher level books and the sealed youkai I come across so long as I warn her first."

"Let me get this straight. You found a young female who's still growing in power despite her ridiculous amount of spiritual ability that is not only intelligent enough to understand what you're teaching her, but actually practices until she has it down right and from the looks of things knows how to use martial arts...and she knows the 'look, don't touch' rule without getting cocky about it?!" said Satoshi incredulous.

Several exorcists were already giving Natsume looks. From the way Natori was talking about his apprentice, he had hit the mother load of potential students! Even if her social skills were lacking, if her skills were high enough that would more than make up for it.

"What of her shiki?"

"He's less her shiki and more her permanent bodyguard. Something about her grandmother having an item from her youth that he wants, and he finds her amusing enough to protect and teach her in exchange for it once she's gone," said Natori. "Some book of scribbles, likely a youkai artifact her grandmother acquired by accident and didn't know what to do with."

"Sensible, making a trade like that. What if he eats her?"

"From what I've observed, the 'cat' is mostly after the book out of boredom and he finds her amusing enough to stick around. That and she allows him to mooch off her, so he has more reason to keep her alive than to eat her, even if there's no formal bonding between them."

Natori almost completely missed the look in some of the older exorcist's eyes.

*****

Quest alert!

Prove yourself a competent exorcist in the eyes of the older generation by re-capturing the sealed youkai the Mataoba clan have brought with them!

Quest Rewards: 2500 exp, exorcist rank up, three random rewards including one high level book, new skill tree unlocked

Quest Failure: 500 exp and decrease of Rep among the Exorcist class

Natsume sighed and hit the confirmation button.

Seeing the familiar head of the clan bring out a pot, she waited patiently for it to be unleashed. Nyanko was rather curious about this little game, and would allow it some time to flee before they chased it. Besides, this looked like it would kill his boredom.

The bottle opened and a malignant force flew out of it. Several of the weaker contenders fell back in shock, already giving up at the feel of it's aura.

"That son of a... that's a mid-tier youkai and he's unleashing it here?" she said in disgust.

"I agree. At the very least they should have sent out something that is decently strong for the younger exorcists, but not something that would cause such trouble," said a voice.

Her heart nearly stopped when she heard it, and she was so glad that she had the "Sky Haze" technique going on around a certain artifact she had on her belt. She had found that she could move it around so long as she retained skin contact with it, which made hiding it much easier.

Because she knew that voice and those Flames, even if her interaction with him was somewhat limited.

What the hell was Fon doing here?!

Natsume carefully turned, made certain it was Fon before politely bowing to him.

"Apologies Master Fon. I wasn't expecting someone of your skill and fame to be here as well. I wish I had time to properly introduce myself, but it seems I must retrieve the ayakashi that the idiot let loose as a test for the younger exorcists to try their skills on before someone gets eaten or killed," she said politely in Mandarin.

Fon's eyes widened in clear shock she not only knew who he was, but spoke his native language fluently. His smile was genuine, rather than the one he used in general to hide his actual feelings.

"I wish you luck, young one. I hope we have a chance to speak later," he said, bowing lightly back in respect, using the same language.

It was clear he was very pleased with her manners and the fact she knew he was actually Chinese.

Natsume went outside...of course that youkai would know how to hide it's presence.

She took out the paper she just bought and started folding them into cranes. Once she had about twenty of them, she maintained the 'feel' of the youkai that had been set loose and blew them off her hand one by one.

"Seek and return," she ordered.

The cranes began to 'fly' using her spiritual power and a tiny hint of Sky Flames.

"Interesting trick, and saves you quite a bit of searching," said Fon with interest.

"If I thought it would work I would have asked the locals if they've seen a new youkai with a nasty aura, but odds are most of them have cleared the area to avoid being turned into shiki or sealed by some punk exorcist trying to impress his master. Good thing I stocked up on the spirit paper... I keep having trouble charging the regular kind up properly," said Natsume.

The number of paper shurikens she lost trying to upgrade her long range attack...it was almost painful to remember.

Fon chuckled.

"Let me guess, you make paper shurikens but they keep exploding on you?"

She looked at him in disbelief. Nyanko laughed at her expression.

"How did you guess?" he cackled.

"Do you have any idea how common it is for the younger exorcists to use that trick?" said Fon amused.

"It wouldn't be a problem if they exploded away from me, but it's the distance that giving me issues," said Natsume annoyed. She noticed two of her cranes returning. She could tell from her status that some had run afoul of the other exorcists, which was annoying but expected. Some people were so competitive. "Would you like to see the demon sealed, or would you prefer to stay here and wait for the 'winner' to appear?"

"I believe it would be interesting to see you at work, young one," said Fon, accepting her offer to ride on her shoulder as Nyanko took off.

He frowned for a moment when he realized she was Flame Active, but was unable to tell which type of Flame. The fact his pacifier had been dimly glowing for a while now did not help matters.

Natsume had an odd smirk when she found the demon. Fifteen of her cranes came back and laid down on the ground next to her, as the other three had been taken out.

While she could go head to head against this demon and possibly win, she had no desire to give the other exorcists an idea of where it was. The fewer idiots she had to deal with, the happier she would be.

Perhaps it was time to use one of the odd seals she came across in Natori's books? It required shikigami, if she remembered correctly...

Carefully maneuvering her hands into a set of signs that she only remembered because of her long hours of practice, she began the incantation.

She completely missed the look of shock on Fon's face seeing such an old and almost forgotten seal being used, never mind the fact she was using proper Mandarin to do it.

"Shikigami Fuin: Crane Seal!"

The cranes around her took off as if picked up by a whirlwind and circled the demon. It was not happy about this, at all.

Natsume took out a bottle from her bag (really her inventory, but it made a nice cover for smaller items) and threw it into the whirlwind.

The whirlwind turned into a vacuum, sealing the demon rather thoroughly into the bottle, which slammed shut...and gained a rather attractive crane decoration along the sides on the paper seal on the top of the bottle itself.

Silence reigned for several moments, before the sounds of the night returned.

Fon carefully went up to the bottle and picked it up, examining it with open interest.

"It has been many years since I've seen a shikigami seal performed. And none of them have gone that smoothly...the fact you were able to toss the bottle as an afterthought while still controlling the technique says volumes about your skill level," he said impressed.

Natsume's smile was tired, but proud.

"I'm more than a pretty face...or a Sky who needs their Guardians to protect them from the world," she said quietly.

Fon's smile froze a bit at that.

"I see. I had wondered what your Flame type was."

"Shall we return?" she asked, taking the bottle Fon handed her and putting it in her inventory for safety. He took her shoulder while Nyanko followed them sedately.

Quest Complete!

*****

If Natori was shocked when Fon offered to teach Natsume real martial arts, instead of what she called "Tournament Style" which focused more on the belt system, he was good about not showing it.

Needless to say Natsume was quick to agree, though she wanted to stay with Natori. Living with him was the closest she had come to a stable home, especially since she didn't have to hide her gift.

"You're the girl who keeps sealing the ayakashi we go after, or helping them escape," said Mataoba.

"Your treatment of your shiki is deplorable and I'm more than happy to make your life harder until you start treating them better," she said cheerfully. Natori snorted at that. So did Fon.

"Well here's your reward. You get to pick two items and a copy of our higher level books."

Natsume picked a set of odd bells...she could feel something coming off it and she wanted to find out what they did, as well as a box that apparently turned regular paper into spirit paper so long as it was kept suitably charged. The book was the only one she hadn't already seen on Natori's shelf.

She heard the light chime and discreetly checked her status. She had gone from "apprentice" to "rookie", meaning the older ones now considered her a proper exorcist and not just some kid who was still learning the ropes.

It came with an increased amount of respect from the real exorcists and it meant she now had a better selection to buy from in the little market area. Unfortunately she would have to wait until next time before trying her luck there, as they had been wiped out by the idiots who attempted to reseal the youkai that had been let out.

At least she'd get some real training with Fon.

Martial Arts: Flame skill tree unlocked!

Well, she had been having trouble adding her Flames into her attacks without accidentally slipping into Hyper Dying Will mode. It was easier to use her spiritual powers.

*****

Natsume "Takashi" Setsuna

Level: 36

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Rank: Rookie Exorcist/?

HP: 5000/5000

SP: 3500/3500

FP: 3250/3250

Strength: 110

Dexterity: 114

Speed: 125

Intelligence: 200

Wisdom: 200

Constitution: 100

Charisma: 50

Shikigami: Often made of paper, these versatile helpers are completely obedient to their creator. Can serve as makeshift messengers or scouts. The more complex a shiki, the more SP required to operate

Martial Arts: Flame: Imbuing one's Flames into the body and using a functioning style takes practice. Years of practice...unless you have a proper teacher for it.


	5. Chapter 5

“First let's see what your skill level is. Attack me,” said Fon.

“Well this is only going to end badly for me,” remarked Natsume tiredly. Fon smiled at her. “There's no way in hell I'm beating a grandmaster at hand to hand.”

He chuckled, but assumed a loose, easy stance.

Quest Alert! 

Last ten minutes against Fon without losing 75 percent HP!

Quest Reward: 10,000 Exp and Increased Rep with Storm Arcobaleno

Quest Failure: 2,500 Exp

Natsume accepted the quest and only hoped Fon wouldn't kick her ass too badly. He was a fairer teacher than Reborn at least.

At first the fight was pretty evenly matched, though she did surprise Fon a bit when she managed to successfully use the most basic of basic attacks in Gyoza-Ken, even if she could only barely tolerate the special buns without choking. Seeing the interest in his eyes, she tried a different style and his eyebrows visibly went up in surprise more than they had the rather obscure martial art.

Very few people learned Qigong, after all. And even fewer had the required control to learn the healing techniques that allowed her to last as long as she was in their fight.

She was just barely keeping up with the required HP level for the quest when it happened. With only thirty seconds left, Fon managed to snag the string around her neck, mostly to see what it was that she was hiding under her shirt that kept thumping against the fabric.

A bright orange pacifier, identical to the one Fon wore around his own neck save for color, thumped cheerfully against her chest. At the same time, Fon's own pacifier began to glow a bright red color, indicating that another Arcobaleno was nearby.

Quest Complete!

Fon stared at the pacifier with no little amount of shock.

“You're the Sky Arcobaleno,” he said slowly, as if he was having trouble believing it.

“Checkerface is an asshole, and I'm merely biding my time before I tell the Vindice exactly where he is so they can kick him in the balls,” said Natsume. 

Fon's smile at hearing that was rather cold...before he registered the comment about the Vindice.

“Why would the Vindice care?”

“Ever wonder what happens to an Arcobaleno after the curse has run it's course?” asked Natsume.

Fon paled at that.

“Dear gods...”

“Every single one of the Vindice used to be an Arcobaleno. Their rage at the curse and Checkerface was so strong that it allowed their leader to bring certain members of them back, though it turned whatever Flame they had into the Flames of Night. Fortunately for us, their greatest desire is to see that the system is either permanently destroyed or at least taken out of that man's control. Though I daresay they wouldn't mind kicking that man in the balls a few times for what he put them through.”

“How do you know this?”

Natsume's smile was tired.

“You're not the only one trapped in a body much younger than it appears, though in my case I wasn't shrunk to this size, but had my older self somehow shunted back into my much younger body. Hence why my skill level is so high and why I know certain things that no one should.”

“Prove it,” said Fon, willing to withhold belief until he had definitive proof she was telling the truth.

“Your full title is Eye of the Storm and you were close to twenty-seven when the curse was applied. Your only surviving relative is Kyouya Hibari, who is a Classic Cloud though he has a Mist secondary and uses tonfas as his primary weapon. You're a grandmaster in several martial arts, though you know well over a hundred different styles...some of them rather esoteric like the Gyoza-ken and your preferred Flame attack is a technique called a 'storm dragon'. You're a neutral enforcer in the Triads, though you often hold people in contempt while hiding behind your serene facade because they believe that they've achieved a 'mastery' and therefor have no need to improve themselves. Considering the timeline, I'm guessing you've either recently adopted a little girl named I-Pin and have begun teaching her the basics of Gyoza-ken, or are about to. Her special bloodline technique is the Pinzu Time Bomb, though she has very little control over it and it will go off when she is embarrassed enough. Your animal partner is Lichi.”

Fon's expression slowly went from flat to open shock.

Every single fact she had was more or less correct, including the fact that he had recent adopted a little girl named I-Pin, which shouldn't be common knowledge quite yet. Especially her bloodline technique.

Considering the amount of information she had on him, he could easily believe she had knowledge of the future and of the other Arcobaleno.

“I see you've done your research,” he said finally.

“I know some information on all of you, though quite a bit of it is incomplete on some of the others like Skull and Verde.”

“What about Reborn?” asked Fon. He was one of the more well known among them.

“Reborn, the World's Greatest Hit Man and a genius mathematician. His current greeting is 'ciaossu', though originally it was 'chaos', however the curse gave him an unfortunate lisp which caused the shift. His animal partner is Leon, a shape changing chameleon with green skin and orange eyes. He is a chaotic pain in the ass with a massive cosplay closet that enjoys sharing the misery and will not hesitate to push his students into mine fields blindfolded for his own twisted amusement in the name of training. His birthday is October 13th, and he has an unhealthy addiction to coffee. He often uses pseudonyms, though they are very ridiculous. Despite outward appearances, he is actually genuinely fond of his students even when using them as target practice,” said Natsume without hesitation. “His special attack is a multi-directional blast using Leon called 'Chaos shot'.”

Fon stared at her.

“The first time I got involved in the underworld, Reborn was sent as my home tutor. He was an asshole, but he was also the closest thing to a proper male role model I've ever had and I almost missed the havoc he used to cause in my life,” admitted Natsume sheepishly.

Fon chuckled.

“Reborn does have that effect on people.”

“Want me to take pictures when I bring out the pacifier in front of him when he's sent to train me again?” she asked.

Fon's grin was wicked.

“Absolutely. It's been far too long since any of us have properly gotten one over on Reborn,” he said amused.

Natsume's grin was wide.

“Want some advice on how to at least see Kyouya's softer side?”

“Yes, please,” said Fon quickly. Kyouya had never really taken to him, and always saw his uncle as an intruder in his territory. Which was a pity, because Fon found him adorable.

“Next time you see him, bring a small bird like a canary or a hedgehog to give him as a pet. Kyouya's a sucker for small animals and he wouldn't hurt them. In fact before I came back he had a hedgehog called Roll and a flock of canaries that he kept around all called 'Hibird',” said Natsume.

Fon's had a wide grin on his face hearing that. Finally, some proper ammo on his nephew that he could use!

“Do you still want training?” asked Fon.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is to find a real martial arts master in modern day Japan?” said Natsume dryly. “I could care less if you brought I-Pin with you, if only so I could spoil her on the side. She probably needs a female influence in her life that she can look up to.”

All in all, the training had not gone exactly how Fon intended, but he wasn't complaining. He could see Natsume had more or less reached a 'peak' when it came to training on her own and needed a real master to improve herself as a fighter. While she was better than any tournament style “black belt”, against a real fighter she would have some trouble.

~*~*~*~*

Natsume was sitting on the side with Nyanko as Natori worked the set. In her lap was I-Pin, who immediately took to her as an 'older sister' role model like before. 

I-Pin was very happy that Natsume didn't have a problem allowing the smaller girl to curl up against her at night. Her Master was a fair man, but he often stayed up later than she did and it got really scary sometimes since she had trouble seeing properly. Natsume would let her curl up in her lap and even let her use the older girl as a teddy bear to scare off the shadows. The fact she felt really warm and safe helped a lot too.

Fon had made a discreet agreement with Natsume that once I-Pin's skill level was a bit higher that the older girl would 'hire' his apprentice as her “bodyguard” to keep the Triads from ever sending the little one out on hits. Not only would I-Pin keep her innocence intact, but Natsume had no problem training the girl in how to fight when he was away.

Nyanko, bored with all the humans, wandered off.

Natsume almost missed it when the fake cat wandered onto the shoot.

“Stay here, okay?” she told I-Pin in Mandarin. While the little girl was fluent in Chinese, her Japanese needed a lot of work. I-Pin nodded and stayed firmly put.

Natsume tried to slip into the set to grab the fake cat...only to be busted.

Natori winced. He had gotten a lot of flack bringing them along, but since Natsume kept I-Pin and Nyanko from causing a disturbance most people ignored them after a while. He only did it when the shoot was close to home however.

Natsume froze like a deer in the headlights. She wasn't very good with people and she still hadn't seen why the “apprenticeship” with Natori included a boost in Acting skills.

She was about to find out.

The director took one look at Natsume's odd eyes and was immediately hit with Sky Charisma to the point he decided to add her the replacement for the teen actor who had quit in a huff because he felt he wasn't getting enough respect for a minor part.

Considering Natsume had successfully cross-dressed as a boy before (for many years at that) being able to play the part of one was rather easy for her. The parts in the movie that the teen actor had played were pretty easy too, and the character wasn't that difficult to emulate once the director explained what sort of 'person' they were supposed to be in the movie.

Quest Alert!

One of the actors has quit, leaving a vacancy! Prove your ability to act and make your first debut on the big screen!

Quest Rewards: 5,000 Exp, Acting skill tree unlock

Quest Failure: 2,300 Exp

Natsume quietly hit the accept button (Fon still had trouble dealing with the whole “Gamer” ability, but that didn't stop him from abusing the hell out of it once she proved she wasn't kidding) and waited for the cameras to start rolling again.

Natori shot her an odd look, but she played the part perfectly, even managing to capture the “sullen teen boy” role exactly as the director asked. It wasn't even that hard, considering the amount of lying she had to do for years to hide her gift from people.

At the end of the day when everyone was let out, the odd ability chimed again.

Quest Complete! Acting Skill tree unlocked!

“You didn't tell me you could act,” said Natori, as she collected I-Pin from the side area.

“Considering how much practice I have in lying with a straight face, is it really that surprising? I have an androgynous figure anyway, so why not make use of it. Though I'm surprised the director allowed a completely random person to jump in like that. Won't you have to re-shoot the previous scenes?”

“Only one or two. His part was really minor and he was considered a background character anyway,” admitted Natori.

Once they redid the two other scenes that the teen had been in (proving Natsume really was something of a natural actress), the shoot went much more smoothly as long as the 'feel' was properly explained to her by either Natori or the director.

Fon was certainly amused by it when he found out.

“You know if you get famous enough it might help divert most of the idiots who will demand you become a mafia boss when your Flame type gets out,” said Fon.

“I wish,” sighed Natsume tiredly. “Unfortunately that particular issue was more or less set in stone a long time ago when the Ninth turned out to be an incompetent moron when it comes to his family, as opposed to his famiglia. Though he still has some monumental screw ups in that regard.”

“Do tell,” said Fon with interest.

“Let's start with his fourth 'son' Xanxus. Any idiot with a brain can see the man was adopted into the family, yet the fool continued to let Xanxus believe he had an equal right in inheriting the family when such things are often only passed through bloodlines. When he put Xanxus on 'house arrest' he completely alienated the Vongola's personal assassin division by holding their Sky from them, and they are very loyal to him. Then there's Sawada, who he made his External Adviser on top of having him lead their Intelligence division. Sawada is a narcissistic, arrogant, delusional jack ass who likes to pretend he's a family man but is almost certainly cheating on his civilian wife. Due to his actions and inactions CEDEF has become a complete joke to what it should be and is only kept afloat due to people like Lal Mirch. Also, despite having Sky Flames there is no proof he has ever attracted a single Guardian which suggests there may be something wrong with his Flames.”

Fon frowned at that, partly because he fully agreed about Iemitsu's behavior, but also because she brought up a potential problem.

What really had his interest was the way she spoke of him. The tone alone tipped him off to a more personal reason for her dislike of the man.

“What do you have against Sawada anyway?”

Natsume's face went blank. It was rather impressive, but it also said a lot more than she was willing to admit.

Fon gave her a Look.

“He's your biological father, isn't he?” guessed Fon.

“I will never acknowledge that bastard as related to me, even if someone were to present DNA evidence to the contrary! There's a reason I never told Natori who my mother was or where she lives. The less I have to do with my birth parents, the happier I am,” said Natsume angrily.

“What did your mother do to you?”

“It's not what she did, it's what she didn't do,” said Natsume, almost drained of energy at the mere mention of the subject.

Natori, having overheard part of the conversation spoke up.

“Natsume... exactly what happened?” he asked. His tone left no room for argument and he definitely wasn't going to drop the subject.

He had wondered what exactly set off the series of events that lead to her living on her own for over three years despite her age.

Natsume sat down and Nyanko, in a rare show of empathy, crawled into her lap and let her hug him tightly.

“My mother is a fully delusional woman who wouldn't recognize severe bullying even if you slapped her in the face with it. She plays the part of a dutiful house wife and is very good at mothering others... but when it comes to her own daughter it's like there's blinders on her that make her incapable of seeing the truth. When I was six, a trio of older children thought it was hilarious to push me off the jungle gym and broke my arm in three places. I was sent to the hospital and my mother was called in as per protocol. And do you know what the first thing she said was?”

The others were silent.

“She asked if her clumsy child had had another accident again. She was completely unconcerned with the fact that the teachers had seen what happened and even told her that it was a deliberate act of bullying, she maintained the belief that it had we had merely been 'playing' too roughly and that it was my fault for not knowing my own limits.”

Natsume hugged Nyanko tightly to her. She could feel Madara's comforting presence.

“Naturally this alarmed not only the teachers, but the hospital staff enough that a file was opened to see what was going on in the house. Three months later, when my arm finally came out of the cast I was sent to live with my maternal grandfather. He told me that my mother wasn't like that before, and only started to lose touch with reality after she married my father. He's the one who first gave me the nickname Takashi, because once I got used to being away from my mother's presence I opened up and became a bit of a tomboy. Then everything went to hell when he died a year and a half later.”

Natsume was almost completely lost in her memories at this point.

“No one could contact my mother, and she never responded to the lawyers attempt to get in touch to disperse her part of the inheritance. As a result I was sent from family to family, driven out because of my Sight and the fact none of them tried to understand the fact I could see things they couldn't. Worse, they all assumed I was a boy because of the nickname which I had held onto and would punish me severely if I tried to act my actual gender. I finally had enough when they forced me to stay with Hanako, who hates children and would take a cane to anyone who didn't fit her definition of 'normal'. The second she found out I was actually a girl who was dressing like a boy she was furious. I knew where she kept her cards and I knew she was loaded with what a miser she was, so I decided that since she was going to be such a hag she deserved to pay for all the pain she put me through. That was when I started living on my own.”

“So that rumor among your family that you stole a large sum of money...” started Natori.

“Is completely true, and there's no way in hell I'm paying it back. Everyone knew what she was like and they still shoved me on her anyway despite the fact it was obvious she would be abusive towards me,” said Natsume with a scowl. “I destroyed the card the second it stopped working and made sure it couldn't be traced back to me, so there's no way they can prove I'm the culprit anyway.”

It took her several seconds to register Natori was hugging her. He knew her childhood had been rough and there was a reason she never mentioned her birth parents, but he hadn't known it was that bad. It was a miracle she was this normal at all.

“What of your father?”

“For all intents and purposes, you should consider him a nonentity in her life. That man is married more to his work than his wife and I know for a fact he's had several affairs his wife is unaware of,” said Fon quickly. “I highly doubt he's even aware his child is no longer living with his wife, if her delusion is that bad.”

Considering Lal had never once mentioned that Iemitsu was missing a child, or that he was even aware of the fact she had been removed from his wife's custody, it was unlikely he had stayed long enough to realize something was wrong.

Though this definitely made Fon's opinion of him sink lower than the regard he gave a common garden slug.

**~*~*~**

Natsume “Takashi” Setsuna

Level: 40  
Age: 14.6  
Gender: Female  
Rank: Rookie Exorcist/Sky Arcobaleno  
HP: 5400/5400  
SP: 3750/3750  
FP: 3500/3500  
Strength: 120  
Dexterity: 120  
Speed: 130  
Intelligence: 205  
Wisdom: 205  
Constitution: 110  
Charisma: 55

Sky Arcobelano: One of a set of seven, the Sky is the only one who has the option to avoid being turned toddler sized. Has the ability to resurrect other Arcobaleno if killed at the expense of their own life

Acting: Lights! Camera! Action! Acting is one of the oldest forms of storytelling, and can increase one's ability to spin tales while keeping a straight face. The higher your Acting level, the higher the boost to your Rep!

Martial Arts-Journeyman: permanent 15 percent boost to all martial arts skills and Exp gain

Permanent Party members: Madara/Nyanko, Fon


	6. Chapter 6

After the emotionally draining explanation of why she had no contact with her family, Natori decided to let her sleep in. At this point he was just happy she trusted him enough to tell him this much.

He still found the fact she managed to con Grand Master Fon into a pair of black cat ears on top of letting her cuddle him like a doll hilarious. It was ridiculously cute and he had several photos.

What he didn't know was that by opening up on what happened in her past, a certain spark had passed between Fon and Natsume. A spark that turned into a full conflagration and harmony bond.

Fon had been startled when he saw his first pop up after letting Natsume hug him for comfort. He had only lowered his defenses for a few moments, and almost immediately her Flames latched onto his.

Once he got over his shock (and when Natsume took time to explain how it worked) he decided to play around with it while Natsume was in class. Shortly after school was over for the day, Natsume invited I-Pin to a “party” so the little girl could play around with it as well.

I-Pin loved it and was happy that she could at least see her own progress. Her level was low, but she took consolation in the fact it was still higher than any other child her age and a few of the older kids as well.

~*~*~*~

“How are you feeling?” asked Natori. It had taken a few days for things to settle into a new normal between them, but he was rather happy with the results. She had started calling him Shuu-nii-san instead of Natori-san. 

Considering her past, he treated the fact she acted as though he was her older brother a major victory for him.

“I'm fine.”

“This is your first major role as an actress. It's okay to be nervous,” said Natori smiling at her.

While he had been fairly popular thanks to his looks, Natsume's popularity skyrocketed after the second time she became an extra and people recognized her from the bit part she played before.

Something about her drew people in like flies to honey, and the fact she was a natural actress didn't hurt. She treated the entire thing like a side job that meant she spent a bit more time with her big brother, and didn't let the fame go to her head like it did most her age.

However this was going to be the first time she was the lead actress in the movie. Even if she was playing the part of a boy, which had lead to quite a bit of confusion in the film community until they figured out why she had a 'male' middle name.

Natori chuckled and stood to the side. Since he was her legal guardian (and an actor himself) he was often invited to the same shoots even when he wasn't playing a part. During those times he sat to the side with I-Pin and Nyanko.

He had to admit, it was fascinating watching the entire process from the outside, especially when it was Natsume on the set. Once she got into the swing of things she was able to naturally pretend she was in the character's shoes, right down to the attitude. 

He didn't know who had the bright idea to make Natsume a dashing teen boy in one of those cheesy high school movies... especially since Natsume was barely in high school herself, but she had the other girls in the movie eating out of her hand by the end of the second day.

Hearing them bemoan the fact Natsume was a girl, same as them was rather amusing. The fact Natsume was quick to divert their hormonal attachments to him, not so much.

However in the middle of the shoot Natori was approached by a rather harassed looking gentleman with a problem. One who had heard rumors about Natori's side job.

“So he opened up a store house and is being haunted every night by an ayakashi?” said Natsume later that night.

“Pretty much.”

“...I think I know who we're dealing with and I know how to fix this. On an unrelated note, you're going to get a new shiki out of it,” said Natsume.

“...Are you serious?”

“Absolutely. If it's who I think it is, then it's a youkai you met as a kid who still has the bandages on their hand. The trick will be getting rid of the spell rope, but I know exactly who to ask to deal with that problem.”

Ancient spell rope against the world's strongest Storm. Two guesses who would come out on top there.

“And what is my future Shiki's name?” asked Natori, joking.

“Hiiragi.”

Natori learned never to question Natsume's intuition again when the rope came off and the youkai's first thought was to bind itself to him as a shiki.

On the plus side, Natsume's first big break went off without a hitch. Though she found her fame somewhat annoying as the teens in her school quickly figured out who she was.

*~*~*~*

Hands lashed out, wrapping themselves firmly around a tiny waist and yanking the girl to safety. The truck that almost hit her sped on, without caring that they nearly hit her.

Natsume breathed heavily, as she had barely managed to grab the girl before she was hit by that speeding truck.

“Are you alright?”

The girl was positively tiny and unable to stand on her own, her legs shaking from the realization she was almost killed.

It took Natsume exactly three seconds to realize she had Nagi, or rather Chrome Dokuro in her arms.

“You're safe now,” said Natsume in a gentle voice.

Chrome latched onto her side in a heartbeat, still shaking.

“Do you have anywhere to go? Parents to contact?”

Chrome was too shaken to speak. Natsume sighed and pulled out her cell phone. Then, on a hunch she scooped up a certain fake cat and plopped him in Chrome's arms. Just having something to hug seemed to help greatly. Natsume quelled Nyanko's protest at the act with a look.

One of the other actors who was out getting lunch pulled up on the side street, and the two got in.

“Thank you,” said Chrome quietly.

“I wasn't about to let someone else get hit with a speeding truck. You would have been lucky to survive, and sent to the hospital for certain.”

Chrome hugged Nyanko like a life line and followed Natsume to the hotel room she was staying in like a puppy. She froze when she saw Hiiragi.

“You can see them?” asked Natsume gently. She nodded, frozen stiff with fear. Natsume sighed...she had a feeling. “Hiiragi is safe enough...they won't harm you. Though this definitely makes things both easier and complicated.”

“Who's this?” asked Natori.

“Another poor girl who has the Sight, but no idea what's going on. I don't think her behavior is purely due to being bullied by the ayakashi though...she's way too thin and I could feel her ribs when I saved her,” said Natsume. A thought occurred to her. She pulled up a picture and showed it to Chrome, who immediately flinched at the sight of it.

“What did you show her?”

“I had a feeling... You're Hanako's granddaughter, aren't you?” asked Natsume. Chrome nodded slowly, wondering how Natsume knew her grandmother who she never particularly liked. “Did your parents ever mention one of their cousins being the main suspect behind why the old woman had a lot less in her account than they were expecting? Something about a large amount of cash being taken and them running off with it?”

“Mother was particularly furious about that,” said Chrome quietly. “Grandmother left a large sum as a trust fund for me, and she wasn't able to inherit hardly anything after that was paid out or touch the dowry itself. In fact mother was particularly angry that they had to take a chunk of the trust fund just to pay anything to the others.”

Natsume almost winced at that. Considering what little she heard about Chrome's mother, it was pretty obvious the woman had taken it out on her daughter, who inherited more than she did.

“Well at least now I can possibly return some of the money I stole from that hag without feeling like a total idiot doing it. Though if her daughter is anything like her, then there's no way in hell I'm letting you go back to live with her. Especially if you have the same gift I do.”

Chrome stared at her in confusion and a small amount of hope. Natsume gave her a tired smile.

“I'm the 'useless cousin' that robbed Hanako of a large sum of money and ran off with it. Even if they could prove it was me, the fact I was very much a minor at the time and the fact Hanako had a known history in the family for hitting kids who didn't fit her view of how things should be would have kept anyone from pressing charges.”

Chrome was looking at her in absolute shock. Then hope began to fill her eyes.

“You're my cousin?”

Natsume gently ruffled her hair.

“Don't worry itoko... I'll protect you.”

Some time later...

Natori didn't know where Natsume came up with a name like “Chrome Dokuro” for her cousin, but the girl eagerly went along with it. Any mention of returning her to her mother was met with almost outright terror, even if she never said anything about it.

In order to cover for why there was now another girl who wasn't acting as an extra in the group, Natsume hired her as her personal assistant. She was just famous enough to get away with it, and it covered Chrome's presence around her nicely.

I-Pin seemed to behave as though it was her duty to keep Chrome safe, and Nyanko was more than happy to keep an eye on both since Chrome happily spoiled him rotten.

Natsume was fully aware that Chrome was a sucker for cats.

By the time they had left the area, heading back to 'home', Chrome was quietly enlisted in the same school Natsume herself had attended before moving on to the high school.

She seemed to take great comfort in Natsume's presence.

Fon waited until there was a moment of peace before broaching a topic he felt pertinent.

“You are aware...”

“Chrome is a soft Mist type, bordering Active at the moment. When she starts to use illusions I'll see if Viper would be interested in training her for a month or two,” said Natsume. “If I remember that miser, they'd likely do it since I do have enough money to pay for it the lessons.”

Fon nodded quietly. It was good to have a Sky that was actually on top of things. He could fully understand the fact that Natsume did feel some guilt about robbing this “Hanako” person, but wasn't going to simply return it to the family who had mistreated her so. However a lot of that could be dealt with by rescuing the woman's granddaughter from a bad home life and giving her most of the money she had taken anyway.

They were family after all.

“I followed your suggestion and gave Kyouya a baby hedgehog I found abandoned. I have never seen anything as adorable as my nephew caring for that little animal in my life,” said Fon delighted.

Kyouya had taken the responsibility for little Roll with more maturity than Fon would have ever expected. By the time he had left Namimori, he would swear he had seen that little animal poking it's head out of Kyouya's breast pocket watching the world with wide eyes. It was the most adorable thing he had seen and Kyouya hadn't tried to bite him more than once or twice for entering his territory.

Fon happily shared pictures to coo over. Natsume grinned.

“Happy I could help,” she said honestly. Fon clearly cared about Kyouya, but the Cloud's pride would never allow him to ask for help when he needed it. Helping bridge even a little bit of that gap made her happy. 

Fon almost purred in her arms. While he was her teacher in martial arts, just basking in her Flames made him want to purr like a particularly content cat in the sunlight. Even if she did make him wear those silly cat ears.

*~*~*~*

Natsume took one look at the script in her hands, and wondered who spilled the fact that she was a martial artist.

Considering Natori wasn't looking at her directly, she could easily suspect the culprit.

“So basically you want me to play the part of a grieving daughter of a martial artist who has to train the 'hero' so that he might be able to avenge her father's death,” said Natsume slowly. “He's a cocky, if somewhat skilled street fighter who will undoubtedly act as the love interest of the girl near the end.”

“Exactly!” said the director enthusiastically.

On one hand, this script did cater to her skills as a fighter. On the other hand the last time she acted as the 'love interest' of some idiot they had tried to get fresh with her. She had not been happy about it.

Then an evil, wicked idea occurred to her, one that was sure to provide a large amount of entertainment later. 

“Might I suggest a few alterations to make the movie even better?” she asked.

“Please. This would be the first martial arts movie I've done and I'm terrified of screwing it up. You won't believe how finicky the martial arts community can get when it comes to movies,” said the director in relief.

“Well in that case you're in luck, I know a legitimate grand master in several styles who would be happy to help if I asked. He also has a nephew who knows how to fight and would look good on the big screen,” said Natsume with a straight face.

Seeing the director's relief, Natsume had to fight back her laughter. Kyouya was going to be so annoyed with her later, and Fon was going to have a good laugh.

Some time later...

“What.”

“The director handed me a script for a cheesy martial arts movie and I made a few suggestions. You get paid to help the extras fight like real martial artists and actually make a movie worth watching that isn't a complete embarrassment to the genre...and I made the suggestion that we drag Kyouya into it as one of the main characters.”

Fon stared at her.

“What are you really up to?”

“I want to poke fun at a carnivore and force you to wear cat ears for an extended time,” said Natsume without hesitation. “The fact that I'll be able to fight Kyouya on the big screen and not have it looked like a cheesy choreographed fight is just bonus.”

Fon scowled for a moment.

“What is it with you and putting me in cat ears?”

“But you look so cute in them!” said Natsume with a straight face. “Besides, this way Kyouya gets a decent sparring partner, he has to spend a few months with you and I get to enjoy poking fun at the tiger while seeing you look positively adorable.”

“I'll do it on one condition. You have to wear cat ears as well during the movie.”

“Deal.”

~*~*~*~*~*~

Permanent Party Members: Madara/Nyanko-sensei, Fon, Chrome


	7. Chapter 7

“Okay, I'll bite. How did you get Kyouya to agree to this?”

“Easy. I poked at the panther's pride and told him he'd get to fight me daily if he agreed to let it be filmed and do a few lines. I just didn't tell him you'd be in it as well or that he'd be one of the lead roles,” said Natsume with a straight face. “So long as he says the lines, we can edit as necessary later.”

Fon snickered at the annoyed look on Kyouya's face. Natsume had played him like a fiddle, but his pride wouldn't let him back out of it. Even if he had made a rather amusing double take at the sight of Fon in cat ears.

With a good idea of what Kyouya's personality was like, Natsume was able to alter the script enough to allow him to act his part without forcing him to crowd with others directly. Mostly he would be doing fight scenes and playing the mysterious potential love interest of the main character, I/E Natsume who had to journey to find the man who killed her Master and avenge his death so that she might be able to rid herself of the 'curse' he placed on her.

Fon was playing a sort of guide/Cheshire cat sort of character who gave helpful advice in the form of odd quotes that sounded like they were from Confucius or some other long dead sage who trained bright young things into fighters (he was highly amused by this) that appeared and disappeared without much warning at random when the 'heroine' was stuck and was later revealed to be the mystery love interest's missing uncle. I-Pin was his disciple that was searching for him (a fact that had the girl and Fon amused for more than one reason, since they would be indirectly promoting Gyoza-kempo) while Chrome was going to be Natsume's quiet cousin who had come with her for protection. She was more of a support for the main character and didn't get many lines at all. 

And considering who her mother was, she would be wearing a wig and contacts while on screen, along with the name Natsume had given her to insure no one would know who she actually was.

Aside from using the basic plot, the script was decidedly changed from the one Natsume had been given. A fact that amused Natori to no end because even he could see this would be a far more interesting and potentially successful movie than what they were suggesting.

It wasn't often that the girl got to be the hero, with the guy playing a side role without being completely ridiculous about it. Natsume was a very down to earth person and didn't do the whole costumed hero bit save for the ears which she could learn to ignore and the outfit Fon conned her into that was both stylish and easy to move in.

Even Nyanko got in on the movie, acting as Chrome's pet cat that acted as comic relief.

All in all the movie was rather fun to work on (even if Natsume and Fon both quietly took pictures of Kyouya's cat naps...complete with cat ears thanks to some quick work by Fon) and looked to be a major hit once it hit theaters. At the very least it wouldn't be considered a “cheesy, cliché martial arts” movie thanks to Fon's help in giving the extras advice on how to take hits and how to move correctly, instead of just making it look good for the camera.

Natsume considered it a victory when she got an alert from the 'Gamer' power that told her Kyouya had been so impressed with her and her skills as a 'sneaky carnivore' that he had started bonding to her as a Cloud Guardian. Once he went properly Active and spent a bit more time around her, there was a very high chance he would become her proper Guardian.

A three month stint was hardly enough to create a strong bond.

A few months later

Natori was outright trying not to laugh when he saw the first full review of Natsume's movie. Not only had the critics loved it, since the actions scenes weren't faked, but they had loved the fact that the main character wasn't some “ditzy, oversexed twit with a few skills”, but a “down to earth, sensible girl with a reasonable bust size with actual training”.

While the whole “cat-ear curse” was a bit off-putting and made it sound like something out of the magical girl genre, there really wasn't anything good coming out for a least a month or two and the characters were both believable and easy to relate to. The fight scenes were a bit strong, but the fights against the “extras” was at least didn't look like it had been choreographed by someone who had only the barest idea of what a real fight looked like or digitized to look impressive.

He did lose it laughing when her first fan in school realized who she was and begged for an autograph.

“It's not funny,” said Natsume.

“You're right. It's hilarious and you looked rather cute with those cat ears. It was almost disappointing when they 'disappeared',” said Natori with a straight face.

Fon smirked and before she could register it, the ears were back. Natori's grin widened, as he hoped none of them noticed the effect the ears had on other parts of his anatomy.

Seriously, he had practically adopted Natsume as a sister and yet she was too cute for her own good. It made him feel like something straight out of the “Tales of Genji” or something. Particularly with those cat ears on.

“Payback?” asked Natsume to Fon. He nodded smugly, with a cat-like grin on his face.

Though inwardly he wished that he wasn't stuck as a toddler, because there was something seriously addicting seeing his Sky with cat ears on. He knew there was a fetish for it, but he had never really considered it one of his kinks until now.

Natori handed her the paper, and her face went from amused to shocked.

“Seriously?” she said, reading the paper.

“You might very well become the next household name, if this keeps up.”

“Next time I'm dragging you in as an older brother character,” she muttered darkly. Natori smirked at her.

Fon quickly borrowed one of the many magazines that Natori got for free from his agent that featured the most recent article about the movie that had just come out. There was even a small section devoted to Natsume's own career, which he read aloud for I-Pin and Chrome's benefit.

“'Despite being a relative unknown name prior to her minor debut, Natsume Setsuna is quickly proving to be a name on everyone's minds as she continues to star in increasingly successful movies that looked unassuming at first glance. Her latest film is proving to be a massive hit among young and old alike. Featuring some rather amusing 'magical' elements and a surprising amount of realistic martial arts, 'Curse of Midnight's Embrace' is proving to be a fan favorite. A more surprising note is one of the unknown actors who played the lead romantic role in the movie, a teen that has already begun to capture the hearts of many a young girl with his mysterious aura, handsome good looks and unrelenting feral power that is only accented by his surprising gentleness with his small pet that can been occasionally seen poking out of his pocket. One can only hope that this recent bout of fame doesn't go to the young lady's head and that she continues to star in such fascinating films,'” Fon read aloud... he had to pause for a bit when he got to the part about Kyouya. He could already see his nephew's irate reaction to the review.

“Wait, they mentioned Kyouya in that article?” said Natsume, trying not to laugh.

Fon handed it over, and she was soon shaking with amusement.

“He's going to be so annoyed with me once the fan girls find out where he goes to school,” she said laughing. Fon snickered in agreement. “Then again it's almost as funny as what they said about you.”

“Wait, what?” said Fon in shock. Natsume handed him another magazine. He skimmed the part about Natsume and got to the part about the “adorable little martial artists”. The author of that one was clearly a bigger fan of how cute he looked in cat ears and had four entire sentences about it, though there was some confusion as to I-Pin's gender.

“Coincidentally when I saw that article about you, I sent a copy to Kyouya with a note on where to find it.”

“Cheeky brat,” said Fon. Then a thought occurred to him. “About how long until this movie hits the international market?”

“Give it about six months, at least. First run always happens in the country of origin, though it does tend to get spread out a bit more if the original language is in English. It takes a bit over a year before it hits the markets as DVD, by which time they'll have added subtitles and other pre-movie interviews. They'll probably call Natsume and a few others in for the extra features, if they haven't recorded it prior to the movie being finished. I tend to stick closer to the TV shows, since movies are hit and miss unless it's a sequel and television has a bit more sustainability to it,” said Natori. “Why?”

Natsume had an idea of what Fon was thinking about.

“You want to get ahead of Reborn and the others finding out you were in a movie with you wearing cat ears, aren't you?” she asked amused. He nodded. “You're forgetting one small detail.”

“What's that?”

“Skull is fluent in Japanese and will likely be drawn to it if it gets popular enough and will undoubtedly tell the others once he realizes that it's you,” said Natsume snickering. Fon groaned, as he had forgotten that fact. “To say nothing of what could happen if Viper's partner Belphegor comes to Japan for a break and happens to see the movie posters and puts two and two together and tells them about it.”

“I'm doomed, aren't I?”

“The only question is how long it takes them to hear about the movie and look it up,” agreed Natsume.

Fon made a face, but kept his silence, until he remembered something important.

“The yearly summit is meeting next month.”

“Is Lal going to be there?”

“Yes.”

“Then I would rather not risk it,” said Natsume with finality. “Besides this means we get to spring it on them later as a surprise.”

Fon clearly didn't like the idea, but agreed to keep his silence. Considering her justified hatred of Iemitsu and Lal's own personality, she had every reason to want to avoid the failed Arcobaleno who might report it back to her boss.

~*~*~*~*~

As predicted, Skull went to see the movie once he heard about the reviews for it. And the second he saw who was in it, he stared at it in shock. It took everything he had not to break down laughing at the sight of Fon in cat ears. Never mind the obvious Cloud kid who looked far too much like him to be a coincidence.

Whoever had done the casting of the movie clearly knew how to handle Classic Clouds like the kid, because the part was big enough to make sure people saw him enough to remember him, but also 'minor' enough that he wouldn't feel crowded and possibly leave the set entirely.

Fon looked ridiculously cute in cat ears, and the role suited him perfectly. Though if Skull didn't know any better he would say the lead role (an up and coming actress named Natsume Setsuna) was the one who conned him into it because her eyes were glowing in a way that made him suspect she was a Sky.

Either way once the movie was over and he got over his laughter, the first thing he did was contact Viper.

“Time is money, do not waste mine.”

“Hey Viper, what would you pay for information regarding Fon in cat ears? And I mean proof that he would be unable to actually get rid of before you got your hands on it?”

“You had better not be messing with me, or I'll bankrupt you,” said Viper ominously.

“I'm dead serious,” said Skull, snickering. He could already see the fan art being made and posted, and there was no way in hell he was actually going to live this down. The amount of ribbing alone at the yearly meeting in a week was going to be epic.

In short order Viper and Skull came to an agreement and he gave them the movie title. Three hours later Viper had their hands on a pirated copy that was decent enough and the evil grin on their face was truly terrifying.

One week later...

Fon took one look at the expression on everyone's faces and very nearly walked right out the door.

“Who told you?” he demanded, when one of them pulled up a movie poster with him in the background.

Skull was laughing in the corner and Fon glowered at him, before sulking.

“So how did the girl con you into it?” asked Reborn smirking.

“She managed to drag my nephew in long enough to finish filming and agreed to wear cat ears as well,” said Fon. “That and she gave me an idea of how to actually spend time with him without Kyouya trying to bite my head off for it.”

“Is she a Sky?” asked Lal seriously. She looked really familiar, but she couldn't place why.

“I'm not going to confirm or deny it, since you'll only draw your own conclusions. On an unrelated note I found out who now has the Sky pacifier.”

That stopped the teasing cold.

“Who?” asked Reborn seriously.

Fon smirked.

“That's for me to know and her to spring on you without any warning at all. I will say this... she was young when he showed up with the pacifier and has expressed a sincere interest in telling the Vindice exactly where to find him if only so they can kick him in the balls repeatedly for not fixing the system sooner.”

They stared at him.

“Why the Vindice?” asked Verde slowly.

“Ever wonder what will happen to us when the curse has run it's course?” said Fon seriously. Seeing them all pale, he continued “According to her, the Vindice were all like us except they refused to lay down and die when the curse was passed on and became the undead.”

“I want to say you're lying, but that explains more than it doesn't where they come from,” said Viper after a moment. It was clear they were very shaken by this news and they were more determined than ever to break the curse. “And if they're undead than that would also explain why their Flames feel warped.”

“Is there any real reason why she won't meet with us?” asked Reborn. He was not happy about this at all.

“To put it simply, Lal.”

“Me?” said Lal shocked.

“More specifically she doesn't want her identity to be shared with your boss and felt it was easier not to push your loyalties at this time,” said Fon. “She voiced a valid concern about the fact that to date not even I was able to name at least one of Iemitsu's known Guardians and the fact that the Vongola's Ninth generation seems determined to bring the entire famiglia crashing down in a very spectacular manner.”

“What do you mean?” asked Reborn frowning.

“As she pointed out, the current boss has not only alienated the Vongola's personal assassin division, but he's also elected a Sky that has shown questionable competence and all but ruined the reputation of it's intelligence division until it was a shadow of what it was when it was created. To say nothing of the dreadful mismanagement of a clearly adopted Wrath in his care or the fact that all of his son's Guardians are more in line with political matches than have shown any true bonds.”

“Clearly adopted?” said Viper.

“Anyone with eyes can that Xanxus is not Timoteo's son. While he is a legitimate Sky and the leader of the Varia, the odds of him being directly related to the current leader are very low, which means that his eligibility as the next Decimo is questionable at best.”

Viper was silent, even though they knew Fon was right.

“In any case she is more worried about the Vongola catching wind of her existence before she has more Guardians and a stable base of support to work with.”

Reborn frowned.

“Is she from an enemy famiglia?”

“More like she has no interest of being used as a potential pawn or married off by the current generation, particularly considering their actions in the past ten years,” clarified Fon.

“Hold on. You're telling us that the current Sky is a Vongola?” said Lal, latching on to this news. “Is she a bastard or something?”

“She is a Vongola, but that's all I will say on the matter. I will say her parents were married when she was born, though she wants nothing to do with either of them.”

The summit continued with the Arcobaleno sharing the latest gossip, ribbing Fon about his stint in the movies (with cat ears no less) and generally trying to pry who their new Sky was out of the Storm who had clammed up outside of the first night.

~*~**~*~

Natsume “Takashi” Setsuna

Level: 46  
Age: 15.1  
Gender: Female  
Rank: Journeyman Exorcist/Sky Arcobaleno  
HP: 6000/6000  
SP: 4000/4000  
FP: 3750/3750  
Strength: 125  
Dexterity: 135  
Speed: 135  
Intelligence: 210  
Wisdom: 210  
Constitution: 120  
Charisma: 60


	8. Chapter 8

Fon waited about a month into Reborn being sent to train the “heir” of the Vongola before he went to visit Natsume.

During the time they had visited Namimori, Fon had used the Observe ability with Natsume's help and discovered that her younger brother, who was barely six or seven, was in fact a Sun Latent. There was no Sky in his Flames, meaning he would be ineligible as the heir of the Vongola.

“So Reborn's been sent? About how long before he remembers the comment you made and tracks us down to find the 'mystery Sky Arcobaleno' since he knows that they're of the Vongola bloodline?”

“I'd give him a few more months, depending on how long it takes before he realizes it's pointless trying to turn the boy into a Sky when he isn't one,” said Fon evenly. “How are things with Kyouya?”

“I think he might be ready to become my Cloud soon. He respects me as a potential carnivore, or at the least an omnivore. Since I can actually keep up with him and don't mind his habits, he doesn't seem to mind being around me that much. Whether he'd be willing to fight as my Cloud is up for debate,” said Natsume.

Fon nodded. She definitely had a good grasp of Kyouya's personality, which was a good thing. It also meant that if she managed to bond with him then one of the worries he always had about his nephew would disappear. Clouds were at most risk when they were growing up, until their hormones had leveled off.

One thing was for certain, and that was the fact that no one could possible call Natsume the sort of Sky who'd stand on the sidelines while her Guardians did all the fighting. Far from it.

It was one of the things that made him very happy to be her Storm... he knew she could dish out just as much damage as he could and defend herself without him having to hold her hand all the time in real combat.

“My best guess is that Reborn will wait until the child has to face real danger that is unavoidable for the heir of the Vongola and see how he fairs before he attempts to find you,” said Fon honestly. 

Reborn would do exactly what his contract demanded, since he had no idea where to even start looking for the Sky Arcobaleno considering Fon had been surprisingly tight-lipped about it. Even then, he would have to get permission from the Vongola before he switched students.

“Mind staying around until he gets a clue or something happens that requires me to intervene directly? I already have an idea of when would be the best time to interfere, but every bit of training helps.”

Fon looked decidedly pleased hearing that comment, which was yet another reason he liked having Natsume as his Sky. Her priorities were very similar to his own, and he agreed that every bit of training would help. Especially when her true status in the underworld was revealed.

For now she was safe, because no one was fully aware of the circumstances behind her removal, but once that was blown wide open she would have to fight off all manner of enemies.

In Namimori...

Reborn was inwardly cursing as he got a good look at the Flame on little Ienari's head. He was far too young to possibly take on the title of Vongola...and apparently the wrong Flame type. He could tell right off the bat the child was a straight Sun with no secondaries.

Several things kept him from calling off this assignment entirely.

The first was the fact that Timoteo clearly remembered sealing Iemitsu's child who had a Sky Flame during the lone visit to Namimori at least ten years ago. Too long for it to have been Ienari, who wasn't even eight yet. The second was that after learning what the boy's Flame type was, Reborn had gone digging into the records of the Sawada family and discovered that there had been another child that lived in the house, one old enough to have been around during the time of the visit. 

The problem was that all records of said child disappeared completely when they were about six years and three months old. The records involving the little girl (the birth certificate was very clear on that fact) were all sealed and it would take time to find what exactly happened.

Which really begged the question of why the hell Iemitsu hadn't raised up a stink about the fact his daughter was missing roughly nine months later when he visited, which was around the time Ienari was conceived. Or why Nana seemed confused when questioned about little Setsuna directly.

The main reason Reborn still had some hope that things might turn out alright was the comments Fon made during the yearly get together of the Arcobaleno about the new Sky. If the girl truly was a Vongola, then there was a possibility she might be strong enough to handle what Ienari couldn't. Though something about the whole situation was bugging him, as if there was something he was missing that was right in front of him if he would only put the clues together.

First though he would have to train the boy as best he could.

*~*~*~*~*

It was strange, visiting the place that had been home for so long and accidentally remaking the bonds with Tanuma and Taki.

“I can't believe the Natsume is actually an exorcist!” gushed Taki excitedly.

“I'm just glad I was able to help, I can't believe that youkai tricked you like that. You could have seriously gotten hurt,” said Natsume smiling.

“Thanks for warning my dad about purifying the fields too often,” said Tanuma.

“While his heart was in the right place, most of the youkai in this area are fairly docile. Though if a dangerous one does show up you can always call me and I'll see what the problem is. Though I only seal or purify ayakashi like the ones that attacked Taki-san.”

It was hard to believe how much she missed this. Being able to relate to Taki and Tanuma, who despite lacking her strength still understood her.

Only this time she wasn't hiding her gender and felt much more comfortable in her skin. Last time had been a pain in the ass hiding the fact she was a girl, despite the fact she trusted them. It had only been her increased attraction to Tanuma at the time that had blown that particular secret wide open, and had lead to some rather frank discussions on how to proceed.

It had never gone anywhere, thanks to the whole mafia thing and the day Reborn finally tracking her down, but still.

“So is Chrome your sister or...” asked Taki.

“She's my cousin,” said Natsume with ease. “A very distant, related-only-through-marriage one, but still my cousin. She can see ayakashi too, though her gift is much weaker than mine. And this adorable little one is I-Pin.”

Taki practically squeals and the second she's given permission proceeds to cuddle the surprised martial artist child closely.

Fortunately I-Pin is used to this sort of treatment, as Natsume has a habit of doing the same thing...just a lot less loud.

Natsume spies Fon and in the spirit of mischief puts a pair of cat ears on him in time for Taki to spot him and squeal even louder.

Fon's indignant yelp is hilarious and Natsume has to fight her laughter down. She'll pay for it later in spades, but it was so worth it to get a picture of that look on Fon's face and send it to Kyouya.

In Namimori Kyouya takes one look at the expression on his Uncle's face and proceeds to scare the living crap out of everyone in the vicinity by laughing. Hard.

Fon scowls at Natsume and manages to free himself. Natsume smirks unrepentant back.

Still he is relieved. This is the first time he's seen Natsume interact with others in a normal way that doesn't involve training, exorcist work (which is rare), and actually acting like a teenage girl.

“So what's it like, being an actress?”

“Like putting on a costume, really. Except you don't always hide your face under a mask,” said Natsume after a moment. “I try to only take on characters that I can empathize with myself as a rule.”

“Is that why you took on such an odd role in that martial arts film?” asked Tanuma.

“Ah, no. The director found out I knew real martial arts and asked me for advice... so I dragged Fon in and the next thing you know we remade half the actual script to something that made a lot more sense and wasn't so cheesy. Though the cat ear thing was all because I enjoy tricking Fon into them, and he demanded I wear them as well if he had keep them on the entire movie.”

That and it had been a fun, simple exercise for a recently Active Chrome to play around with her illusions. 

A little while later...

“So you finally made some friends your own age, Set-chan? That's good to hear,” said Natori. It was clear from his expression he was very relieved at that.

“Tanuma has some ability, but not enough to actually see anything and Taki's grandfather collected a lot of interesting things about youkai. Though I think she's learned her lesson about using the circle she found in one of his books without supervision,” said Natsume smiling.

Natori could tell that these two children Natsume met were good for her. It was certainly doing wonders for her anti-social behavior.

Her 'apprenticeship' with him was almost over, not that it had ever really felt like one. They treated each other more like siblings even from the very beginning.

She didn't need his help to deal with youkai. Then again, by the end of the first year as 'master slash apprentice' she had already surpassed his own skills and ended up being the one to help him. It didn't hurt that her power far exceeded even his own, or that her behavior around youkai made it far easier to track down the one causing the problem and either firmly convince them to relocate or seal them.

Natsume didn't need more training as an exorcist. From the looks of things Fon would likely help if needed. What she needed at this point was a chance to socialize with others her own age before she was completely stunted. He had allowed her to get away with it before because he had been more worried about getting her to open up and trust him.

Now though... now he saw an opportunity and if she was agreeable he was going to seize it.

~*~**~*~

In Namimori

Reborn was positively pissed off. Ienari was far too young to deal with this nonsense, and horribly immature.

However with a lack of potential heirs, it wasn't like he could switch over to someone older and mentally ready to handle the life and death reality of the mafia.

Worse, Iemitsu had thrown a complete bitch fit the second Reborn reported that his son had Sun Flames, not Sky and was therefor not even eligible as the next heir.

Not that he would have been for at least seven or eight years, but still.

So instead he continued to train the brat in how to use his Sun Flame properly while searching the records to find out where the hell his older sister disappeared to. 

So far all he had gotten from the records was that she was removed from Nana's custody after a two month investigation into her home situation...namely after Nana's rather alarming dismissal of the fact her daughter had been deliberately shoved off a jungle gym by children at least three years older than she was and broke her arm in three places, and Nana's immediate assumption that the girl had been overly clumsy “as usual” without first listening to the teacher's report of what happened.

According to what little he had been able to find under “Setsuna Sawada”, the child had a very vivid imagination, likely to make up for the fact she had zero friends her own age to mitigate the disturbing amount of bullying she suffered, on top of her grades slipping into the barely acceptable range in a very short period of time. The only good news in the report was that there was no sign of sexual assault...and that had been checked very thoroughly after it was revealed this trend had only started AFTER Iemitsu's last visit.

What really tipped the scales was the very dismissive and far too apathetic way Nana was handling the entire thing, and the note that the woman was more interested in her missing husband than she was about her daughter's health and mental well being.

Reborn had to shake his head. He could see right off that while Nana was a “nice” woman and welcomed almost anyone into the family with close to open arms, if something didn't fit her world view she had a disturbing habit of pretending it didn't exist.

If the daughter refused to fit the image Nana had come up with, then it was far too likely that Nana would only give the basic care required and ignore the rest.

In a way he was rather relieved Setsuna had been removed. He could easily see what a lonely, miserable childhood the poor girl would have had otherwise.

However it was a month after the daughter had been removed that the records almost stop completely cold.

Which likely meant that the girl's surname had been changed as a precaution.

Which meant he had to hunt down what Nana's maiden name was to get a better idea of where to look. All records of her parents were unavailable, for some odd reason and there was no mention outside of the odd notation in Setsuna's file that stated clearly “Relocated from mother to maternal grandparents-custody removed until further notice”.

Ienari had been openly shocked when Reborn revealed he even had an older sibling. Especially when Reborn provided proof by way of the original birth certificate and what few photos were available.

Reborn called Timoteo to alert him of his progress in finding the missing child. He had not been happy to learn that one of the heirs had been missing for close to ten years and that Iemitsu had never even realized his daughter had been removed from his wife's custody.

And as if his migraine wasn't bad enough, Iemitsu was present for the call which had been put on speakerphone.

The idiot didn't even bother to remember his wife's maiden name, meaning he was absolutely useless.

The next time Reborn saw that jackass, he was so going to put several bullets in the man's ass if he wasn't allowed to kill him outright.

The only reason he still held onto hope was, oddly enough, Fon.

~*~*~*~*~

Natsume “Takashi” Setsuna

Level: 50  
Age: 15.9  
Gender: Female  
Rank: Exorcist/Sky Arcobaleno  
HP: 6300/6300  
SP: 4250/4250  
FP: 4000/4000  
Strength: 135  
Dexterity: 140  
Speed: 140  
Intelligence: 225  
Wisdom: 225  
Constitution: 130  
Charisma: 69

And now we are s l o w l y crawling into Reborn! territory with several tweaks.


	9. Chapter 9

It was rather surreal being back in the same high school as before, with several key differences.

For one thing everyone knew she was a girl, and thanks to the acting she was a bit of a minor celebrity. She made no promises of ever boosting anyone into acting...though she did agree to keep an eye out for good extra roles if anyone was interested, which were much easier to come by.

That was usually enough for the few people openly interested in being “in the movies” and kept most of them off her back.

Remaking the bonds with her friends all over again was very weird, but she rather liked it. As goofy as they were, they were good people who had helped her to cope with the madness Reborn had brought with him and caused.

Another key difference was the fact that Natori had set her up with the apartment she remembered him originally having that was half an hour away from the school. Though with Nyanko easily bribed into giving her a ride there, that was a minor annoyance at best.

This meant Nyanko could easily wander around catching up with his friends and getting drunk while she was off “socializing” since the last time Natori had her tested she had proven her ability to understand the subject matter was easily above college level in most areas.

Then again, she did have the world's best cheat when it came to something as mind-numbing as 'education'.

Another key difference is the fact she's much less tense about the whole situation. Before she had been terrified if Touko or her husband found out about her gift, but now... now she just didn't care.

She more or less lived with Chrome and I-Pin (who preferred to pretend they were having a permanent slumber party and left the guest room empty), both of whom attended school as well. I-Pin would have attended regular school, but she still wasn't very fluent in Japanese and had trouble reading. Fortunately Fon was over often enough to home school her most of the time. At least until her ability to handle the school work was within acceptable levels.

(Coincidentally Fon was abusing the Gamer system in that regard and had high hopes she could join a normal school before the next term started.)

Chrome shyly sat next to Natsume, since despite the fact there was a year between them, as she had abused the odd ability her cousin had to catch up to where the other girl was. So long as she could keep up, no one was going to ask any questions. Though with her frail health, she was allowed to skip P.E. at least.

It was...nice. Almost relaxing in a way she couldn't describe.

People were more interested in the fact she was a known actress than they were about any of her odd quirks like the fact she sometimes saw something they couldn't. Though the fact Chrome could often see it as well meant that people were slightly more inclined to believe her.

However it was after school when she went to visit the local youkai that she felt more at home.

“Hello, Benio,” she said smiling.

“Natsume-chan! And I see that lout Madara with you,” said Benio smiling.

Said fake cat scowled at her.

“Could you spread the word to the others in the area that I'll be around this region if they need help? So long as their requests are reasonable I'll at least hear them out and see what I can do.”

“You're entirely too nice to us, Natsume-chan,” said Benio. “But that's one of your cute qualities.”

“How is it too nice when I get favors and the occasional hard to find items in return for a little help? Besides, better me than another exorcist who will simply seal an innocent youkai away and leave,” said Natsume smiling. “And this means I can start getting those little quests you used to give me and upgrade my alchemy knowledge.”

Benio and Hinoe had been her main source for the youkai arts and the quests that came with it. While some of the quests had been mildly embarrassing (like the one where she had to find a wig and dressed exactly like Reiko for a week for Benio) and others were rather fun, the amount of things she learned under them was well worth it.

She was far more prepared when dealing with the higher level youkai now than she was the first time around, when she had tried avoid them and pretend she was normal.

To say nothing of the small caches of money and other things she stumbled across while doing said quests, some of which took her deep, deep into mountain ranges where she had to rely on her ability to trust youkai over humans.

Coincidentally if she added any more youkai followers she would end up being considered an unofficial “Hyakki Yako” in the youkai world.

Which was ironic considering she was human, but at least gave her the option of becoming an ayakashi herself if the need were great enough.

~*~*~*~*~

Natsume looked at the pineapple haired teen with the mismatched eyes and his two minions (and one thrall), then at Chrome with an exasperated look.

“You had to lead him here instead of allowing him to try and test the Vongola heir, didn't you?” she said tiredly. Chrome winced. “I'm not mad, though this means I'll be able to contact the Vindice a bit sooner about certain information.”

Mukuro and his friends flinched at the word “Vindice”.

“I have no intention of handing you or your friends over to them. At the very least I could argue that you suffered a major psychotic break from what was done to you and these two, and that Lancia was a victim of circumstance and really bad luck. Besides, I think you'll like what I have to trade with them for your parole.”

“What could possibly interest those creatures enough to put me on parole?” demanded Mukuro, trying and failing to hide his curiosity.

He was about to find out as the hot-cold sensation of the Flames of Night appeared, as did the chains.

Only to be blocked by a less than amused Natsume.

“Hello Jaeger. I have some information for your boss that he would be most interested in hearing, if he's willing to agree to a meeting.”

The lead Vindice froze at the fact she knew him by name.

“They have violated mafia law. They must come with us. Not even the Sky Arcobaleno can overrule us.”

“Who said anything about overruling your laws? I'm talking about a trade that will make your boss very happy in exchange for a legitimate compromise even Bermuda can live with, within reason.”

Jaeger gave her an odd look.

“What could a civilian wearing the Sky pacifier possibly have to offer in trade to us?” he asked pointedly.

Natsume's smile was rather terrifying.

“I know where Checkerface is, right down to the address so that you and your friends can show up unannounced to kick him repeatedly in the balls for being an asshole.”

Dead silence. Jaeger disappeared for a moment only to return five minutes later with an Arcobaleno-sized Vindice who was definitely interested in what Natsume had to say now.

“Let's talk,” he said bluntly. This chance was too good to pass up, and if she were wrong then they could simply arrest her and the others anyway.

Mukuro had to wonder if it was normal to be this turned on by the fact that the Sky Arcobaleno was bartering for not only his own parole, but that of Chikusa and Ken in exchange for the suffering of what he could only assume was the Arcobaleno Administrator, or at least the one who handled the curse.

Letting Lancia go was a minor annoyance, but well worth if it in exchange for avoiding further jail time in Vindicare. Particularly since if they did get sent back it would almost certainly be to a much more secure area that would be nearly impossible to escape.

'Jaeger' and a few others disappeared once they had the address...only to return two hours later with a badly beaten up man with a beard.

Bermuda looked at Natsume with an odd expression.

“It would seem your information was more valid than I assumed. I will agree to hand over Rokudo Mukuro and his two lackeys on parole so long as you are part of a legitimate famiglia.”

“I'm the great great great granddaughter of Ieyasu Sawada, who you might know better as Giotto Vongola. Would that suffice?”

Bermuda nodded in agreement. He was well aware of the fact that the boy the Sun Arcobaleno had been sent to train was in fact the wrong Flame type to be the new heir, but this girl bore a strong enough resemblance to Giotto and her Flames were a close match to his, indicating that she was related to him.

Which meant she was part of a famiglia, but they had clearly misplaced her at some point. No way in hell the Vongola would have let one of their heirs live this far out of their territory with next to no Guardians unsupervised, never mind the fact the girl was the current Sky Arcobaleno.

Natsume felt she had to say something, at least before they took Kawahira off to kick his ass.

“I do have a potential solution to the Arcobaleno curse, but it requires access to Talbot which I do not have at the moment. And quite frankly the recent actions of the Ninth generation concerns me too deeply to announce my actual heritage publicly at this time.”

Bermuda looked rather thoughtful. The girl had already proven herself a boon by handing them the current location of Checkerface before the next Fated day was due (thus giving them a chance for some unofficial payback in the form of a severe beating) and to be honest they didn't really care about Mukuro and his group that much anyway. 

Though they would be picking up Birds and the Bloody Twins. Apparently the girl had no tolerance for psychotic killers without some semblance of control.

Besides, most of his birds would find Kyouya at some point and become his flock anyway, once he found the first one.

Natsume turned to Mukuro, who had a slightly odd look in his eyes. It was rather hard to guess what he was thinking, but at least she could give him some peace.

“Good thing there's a second apartment next to mine that's vacant.”

“Why?” asked Mukuro, honestly confused.

Why would she trade such useful information for their freedom? It made no sense.

Natsume's eyes were kind, but firm.

“You are not a monster, and I know you genuinely care for your friends even if you'll deny it. That, and once the Vongola figures out where their missing heir went you get to have all the fun of giving the Ninth Generation headaches before I go into power, so long as I never have to deal with the paperwork,” said Natsume bluntly.

Mukuro was openly confused by the girl before him. She was nothing like what he expected.

Natsume's smile turned a tad odd. It almost made Mukuro want to back up at the sight of it.

“Besides you can't possibly be as much of a hassle to deal with as some of my 'other' friends, never mind having to deal with Kyouya in a mood. Though it something that doesn't look human bothers you, you have my full permission to punch them.”

“Something that doesn't look human?” repeated Chikusa.

Natsume patted the fat 'cat' on her shoulder.

“Sensei.”

“You owe me daifuku for this later, brat!” said the cat irritable.

“Hai, hai.”

Nyanko switched to his true form, which had Mukuro's eyes widen at the sight of it, though Ken seemed to have some difficulty seeing anything. It was mostly a blur to him, but he knew something was there. Chikusa, however was blind and deaf to it as was Lancia.

“So you can see them. Ken doesn't surprise me overly much, considering how in tune he is with his animal side, but I wanted to be sure.”

“What is that?” asked Mukuro, openly fascinated.

“Ayakashi, youkai, mononoke, spirits, monsters, demons... whatever name you call them by, they all generally boil to the same thing in the end. Something supernatural that is not human, but can still interact with the human world on occasion and cause trouble. Most generally avoid the big cities but out here in the rural areas they're a bit more common. With the prevalence of technology it's gotten harder and harder for people to see them. It requires an affinity that has been disappearing,” explained Natsume patiently. “Most of the youkai that are local to the area know me by now, or have at least heard of me so they tend to leave me be unless they need help. However they might target you and Ken because you can see them, even partially.”

“So you're saying youkai are real.”

“As real as certain spiritual powers. If they bother you too much let me know... I have a few warding papers that will keep them away,” said Natsume. “For now we just need to get you situated properly.”

Mukuro and his two minions were beyond confused at the treatment they were getting from the girls, never mind the look Fon gave all three of them when he realized who they were.

“You do realize these three have a bounty on their heads by the Vindice.”

“I traded the location of the same man who cursed us with the pacifiers so they could express their extreme displeasure with his actions in exchange for their parole,” deadpanned Natsume. “So long as they behave and don't go on a repeat killing spree then Mukuro is free to act as my Mist Guardian.”

Fon blinked, before a cold smile came across his face.

“You knew where he was?”

“Down to the address. Bermuda was rather happy with the arrangement, though if I had proper access to Talbot we might have been able to do something about the curse itself. However I'm not in the mood to deal with either Reborn or the demands of the Ninth and his stupidity at the moment.”

Fon, who had been about to drink his tea almost choked on it.

“You know how to remove the curse?!”

“I've known for a while, I just didn't have the means or ability to act on it,” said Natsume. “That and the last time it was dealt with, it was at the tail end of the current set and I wasn't sure if it would actually work if the Fated Day wasn't upon us. The trick is to flood the pacifiers so that the strain on our bodies is lifted enough to remove the blasted things without killing you, which requires gathering enough people with the strength to match your own Flames and not overloading your body.”

Fon winced at the implications of that. Storm flames were tricky enough to control at the best of times and the idea of flooding the pacifier with enough of them to allow the item to be removed... he could see why she never mentioned it before.

“Besides, this way we get to watch Viper have a total bitch fit when they see Mukuro's fighting style up close. If I remember correctly they had major issues about Mists using physical force instead of just illusions,” said Natsume smirking. Fon smirked as well at that, as he could already hear Viper's ranting if they saw the younger Mist fighting with the trident he materialized.

~*~*~*~

Reborn's limited patience with Iemitsu's stupidity and incompetence was almost well and truly dead.

“So just to be clear, shortly after Ienari was born your wife received a letter from what appeared to be a lawyer...and you threw it in the trash?!”

Iemitsu's idiotic laugh over the phone made Reborn want to strangle him, slowly. If it hadn't been for Lal telling him the exact time frames of when her boss came to Namimori to visit his wife and child, he never would have figured out what happened.

“Is this important?” asked Timoteo pointedly.

“It is when the dates roughly line up to when Nana's father died and custody of his daughter was up in the air! According to the firm in charge of the inheritance, they made multiple attempts to reach Nana within the two weeks Iemitsu was in town only to come up empty. As a result, Setsuna was sent to live with different families which had a rather alarming trend of sending her to live with a new one within three months of her staying with them. Something about 'made up creatures' which fits in with the reports I found about why she was removed in the first place. It's possible she developed a Mist secondary that bypassed the seal you mentioned,” said Reborn bluntly. His voice became rather irate as he then added “Of course the trail stopped completely when I reached a family who was very clear that she is the lead suspect in the theft of a large amount of their inheritance and hasn't been seen since.”

“I see,” said Timoteo tiredly. 

“All of this could have been prevented if that idiot had done his job as a father or bothered to see what the firm was trying to contact his wife about,” said Reborn mercilessly. “God only knows where the girl is now, though I have high doubts she would agree to returning to Namimori or having anything to do with her parents, since her mother didn't bother to reclaim her.”

Reborn was a bit suspicious about why the families he contacted generally called the girl Takashi, unless it was a nickname or something. Either way, the second he described the child in question, or a rough estimate they all pointed to the same one and said that the child was sent to live with yet another family with rather alarming regularity.

He just hoped that he could find this girl before things got out of hand.

~*~*~*~*~

Natsume “Takashi” Setsuna

Level: 52  
Age: 15.11  
Gender: Female  
Rank: Exorcist/Sky Arcobaleno  
HP: 6500/6500  
SP: 4350/4350  
FP: 4150/4150  
Strength: 140  
Dexterity: 144  
Speed: 143  
Intelligence: 230  
Wisdom: 230  
Constitution: 133  
Charisma: 72

Permanent Party Members: Madara/Nyanko-sensei, Fon, Chrome, Mukuro


	10. Chapter 10

Fon was almost smug when Reborn's attempts to locate “Setsuna Sawada” ended in dismal failure. Then again, he was unaware that he had been asking the wrong questions from the start.

Natsume was now sixteen, and thoroughly amused by the fact Natori had a very protective “big brother” side to him. Something that came into play the second he saw how Mukuro was looking at his “little sister”. Not that Natori would stand a chance in a fight between them, but it was the principle of the thing.

So it was with some amusement that Reborn finally had enough and asked the other Arcobaleno (save for Natsume for obvious reasons) for help locating the girl. 

The underworld gossip network was getting restless since it had become known Ienari was unable to take the title of Vongola Decimo, and the only other heir had been missing for close to ten years without anyone knowing about it.

Something that had Lal cursing out her boss, because he was the idiot who let that fact slip while drunk!

“Mu. So you want us to search for a girl with only a vague idea of what she looks like?” said Viper, unimpressed. 

Reborn had called them together a bit early, just to ask for help. So it was only natural that they would show up.

“This is a goddamn mess,” complained Lal. She had beaten up Iemitsu for talking too much, but the damage was done.

“I have followed every lead I could get my hands on and the trail stops cold when the girl apparently stole a large amount of money from an old woman who has a history of being rough with children,” said Reborn grimly. “By all accounts the kid had enough and decided to try her luck on her own.”

“How did she steal the money?” asked Viper curious.

“ATM transactions, according to what I could find. She hit several of them at once, and due to her size was missed by the cameras. She withdrew the maximum amount and hit several of them at once until the bank computers caught on and cut her off. From what I could tell she stole roughly over two and a half million yen before the card stopped working,” said Reborn.

Viper looked openly impressed with the trick. The kid was smart and devious to have gotten away with so much without being busted by the cameras. And obviously they got rid of the card immediately, otherwise there would be a better trail to follow.

Fon remained silent, hiding his amusement at the entire thing to himself.

A fact that did not go entirely unnoticed.

“You're rather quiet. Something on your mind?” asked Skull.

“Just amused that Reborn is having so much difficulty in the first place,” said Fon cryptically, clearly trying not to laugh about something.

“You know something,” said Reborn darkly.

“Exactly how did you track Setsuna's history to begin with?” asked Fon curiously.

“Paper trail mostly, followed by contacting the families and asking about a child fitting her description. Why?”

“Did it never occur to you to ask for the child's new surname?” asked Fon, amused.

Reborn blinked, before he glared at Fon.

“You know where she is.”

“Actually if you had bothered to ask the correct questions you would have figured out where she was immediately,” said Fon, clearly smug about something. “At the very least I wasn't that cryptic as to who our new Sky was, much less what family she belonged to.”

Reborn and the others remembered his odd comments and began to put the little details together. Reborn was the first to catch on and he started swearing profusely.

“You mean to tell me all this time I've been on a wild goose chase when she's the holder of the Sky pacifier?!” demanded Reborn irate.

“Oh I wouldn't say it was a complete waste of time. At least now I know someone cared enough to bother looking for me, even if it was nine years too late,” said a voice from all around them.

That had everyone except Fon looking for the source.

A figure in a rather elaborate kimono and an odd mask came out of the shadows. Immediately their pacifiers began glowing.

The figure slowly removed the mask, revealing almost cat like eyes that glowed amber with Sky flames.

“I hear you've been trying to find me. Here I am,” said Setsuna amused.

Reborn was rather irate by this point, though he quickly schooled his expression.

“You knew she was coming, didn't you?”

“How do you think I got here? We shared the same ride to meeting point and thought it would be amusing to surprise you all,” said Fon, as if it were obvious. He was definitely pleased with his trick.

“Holy shit! The Sky Arcobaleno is Natsume Setsuna?!” said Skull, immediately going into total fan boy mode.

“Natsume?” repeated Reborn in disbelief. No wonder he couldn't find her... he had been asking about the wrong surname.

“My great grandmother on my maternal grandmother's side. Grandfather thought that since I inherited her gifts it was fitting to give me her last name instead,” clarified Natsume. She bent down to eye level with Skull, and smiled at him. “And no, I don't mind giving out autographs to fans. I mostly find requests to be part of the movies annoying since the most I could do is make people extras anyway.”

“How long have you known?” demanded Reborn.

Fon's smirk was wide and a bit sharp.

“Since I accidentally caused the pacifier to be revealed during an assessment spar. She openly admitted to her heritage but made it very clear she had no intention of cleaning up after the Ninth without a very good reason. Particularly since with his recent behavior there was a very real risk he might try to marry her off or something equally foolish. It's bad enough he lost three heirs and alienated the Varia with his incompetence.”

Reborn couldn't even argue against that comment. Mostly because the fear was a rather legitimate one with a father like Iemitsu. If she had revealed herself before now, without a known support base they can and would have tried to use her as a pawn.

As it stood, she had a decent foothold to tell the Ninth where to shove it if he made demands she didn't like. She wasn't dependent on the Vongola since she held the Sky Pacifier and their allegiance was rather clear on that point.

Viper, however wanted to discuss something with her.

“What's your opinion of the Varia?” they demanded.

“I have no issue with returning their independence to them or working out a proper arrangement with Xanxus. While you do have several 'loose cannons' in your number, you at least know what restraint is and exercise it properly,” said Natsume flatly. She then looked to Reborn. “And for the record, it was closer to two and three quarter million yen, not two and a half.” 

Viper smirked at that.

“What did the lady do to piss you off enough to rob her that badly, kora?” asked Colonello baffled.

“Long story short she was one of those cantankerous old hags who thought it perfectly acceptable to beat the children in her care if they didn't fit her narrow world view of how either gender was supposed to behave. Since nearly everyone in that family thought I was a boy because of a joke my grandfather made due to my habits, she was quite incensed about the fact I acted more like a boy than a girl, never mind the fact I kept 'making up stories' about 'monsters',” said Natsume in disgust. “Everyone knew she was a rather unpleasant person who hated children and they still tried to force me to live with her until a new family could be arranged. I wasn't about to sit by and let that happen, hence why I stole her card and used it.”

“While that answers one question, it still doesn't explain why you nearly emptied her accounts,” Lal pointed out.

“Living alone is expensive, even if you supplement it with judicious pick pocketing on the side and tend to camp out frequently,” deadpanned Natsume. “Food and other miscellaneous costs add up fast, never mind that I had to keep moving to avoid being found by the cops and social services. Besides, she was on her last leg anyway and no one knew she had been robbed until I was long gone. It kept me fed and alive for two years until Natori-san found me.”

Viper officially approved of Natsume by this point. She had a sensible outlook about money and was clearly frugal with it if she had that much sense.

“Natori, as in Shuuichi Natori?” asked Skull.

“Yup,” said Natsume, letting Skull sit in her lap. He was clearly enamored by her and the fact she was so nice. “Coincidentally I have pictures of Fon wearing cat ears taking cat naps and other silly poses. Bidding starts at 10,000 and will only go up the more ridiculous they are.”

Viper gravitated to the girl with a smirk on their face.

“I think we'll get along perfectly,” they cackled, as the others looked to each other and immediately went for their wallets. Particularly Reborn, after the headaches Fon had caused him by keeping silent.

It didn't take long before the others were snickering or laughing outright at how adorable Fon looked with cat ears, despite the Storm's pouting face.

In spite of the stress he had been under, Reborn found it surprisingly easy to bask in the gentle Sky Flames Natsume let off. She wasn't trying to force a bond like Luce had, but rather let them linger in the air like a warm blanket without actually doing anything. It was rather relaxing.

“I have to ask, what's with the kimono and mask?” asked Verde once everyone was almost Flame drunk from the Sky hovering in the air.

“It was a gift from someone after I did them a favor. It helps mask my aura from certain elements...and apparently helps me sneak up on all of you, which I found rather amusing. I made Fon jump quite a bit when I snuck up on him one morning while wearing it at I-Pin's request and he didn't sense me coming. He was so put out by it too,” said Natsume smirking.

“So... I take it you're aware of your heritage?” asked Reborn, changing the subject.

“I'm not particularly pleased with the Ninth generation and I'll put up with it if I have to. At this point I would only agree to it purely so I have access to Talbot,” said Natsume tiredly.

Reborn wasn't the only one to blink at that.

“Why do you need Talbot? Becoming Decima would automatically give you a set of rings, never mind that the pacifiers function like them anyway.”

“Because otherwise we wouldn't have the necessary experience required to remove this curse once and for all.”

Dead silence.

“You know how to remove the curse,” said Viper.

“I know of one method, but it's expensive and like I said would require the expertise of Talbot to make what we need,” said Natsume. “Which is the only reason I agreed to take the curse on in the first place. As for the Vongola...they can burn to the ground for all I care.”

“Exactly how would one break the curse?” asked Verde.

“You would need something that can not only channel the pacifier's power, but also enough of all seven Flame types to share the burden until the pacifiers are transferred to the artifacts. From there it would simply be a waiting game while you shifted back to your original age when you first took on the curse,” said Natsume shrugging. “Finding the flame types would be easy...it's the device that is difficult and that's mostly because the Vongola keep Talbot's location under wraps and because of how expensive flame treated metal is.”

Natsume hadn't quite earned their respect...but she definitely had the attention of the other Arcobaleno. Fon was already one of her Elements...it was the others she had to win over. At least she knew they'd back her before the Vongola.

~*~**~*~

If Reborn took a perverse amount of glee calling the Vongola main house directly, the others said nothing. They wanted in on the chaos too!

“I take it you have something?” asked Timoteo.

“Is Iemitsu there?” asked Reborn.

“Have you found my Tuna-fishy?” 

“Good news, I know who she is and where she is. Bad news...you're going to have to do a lot of groveling before she even agrees to any of your demands. She wants nothing to do with Iemitsu and is extremely leery of anything to do with the Ninth generation considering the more recent behavior,” said Reborn with no small amount of glee. “I can confirm she's a powerful Sky, however.”

“...Care to explain?” asked Timoteo carefully.

“Congratulations, your only remaining legitimate heir is the current Sky Arcobaleno,” deadpanned Reborn. Hearing Timoteo sputter and choke on his drink was rather amusing, to say the least. As was the shocked denial of Iemitsu. “She's also semi-famous enough that trying to force the issue is more likely to get you in trouble with the Vindice.”

“Actually if they tried to force the issue, I'm sure Bermuda would be more than happy to have words with them. They were more inclined to like me when I delivered them the same bastard who cursed us with the pacifiers,” commented Natsume.

Reborn paused and looked at her.

“You know the Vindice personally.”

“How else was I supposed to get Mukuro Rokudo as my Mist Guardian? Chrome's still got a lot of work before she's even remotely ready to handle that sort of thing,” said Natsume as if it were obvious. “They were really happy when I told him where he was, and if nothing else I made sure they got a few licks in for the trouble he caused them.”

Hearing Iemitsu and Timoteo choke when she openly named her Mist was rather satisfying.

Natsume then looked to Viper.

“How much of a going rate would you charge if I were to ask for lessons? Chrome is good, but Mukuro barely knows what to do with his own flames and I would like an estimate.”

Viper looked at her and an odd smile came across their face.

“Since you are offering a chance to remove this curse once and for all, and from what I've seen you're very sensible I'll be nice and give you a discount. Shall we discuss a flat rate over dinner?”

“Sure. If nothing else I can barter seals and the like so you can play around with the supernatural. I'm fairly good at shikigami at this point and Fon did mention you still do information brokering on the side...” said Natsume.

Reborn in the meantime was enjoying the light chaos Natsume left in her wake. She refused to take the Sawada name, citing she had grown up with a different one and there wasn't any real reason to use it save for inheritance purposes.

She might claim her brother, but her parents had lost their chance to be a family a long time ago.


End file.
